Trial Attorneys Among Top Political Contributors, Study Finds

Led by William S. Lerach of San Diego, who contributed nearly $600,000, the nation’s foremost trial lawyers gave a total of more than $30 million to federal candidates--mostly Democrats--over the last five years, according to a study published Monday.

Financed by the American Tort Reform Assn., the study’s results seem to contradict efforts by the trial lawyers to characterize their role in campaign financing as minuscule. The tort reform group noted that trial lawyers’ contributions exceeded the total of $29.7 million given by the five most politically active labor unions in the country.

But Larry Stewart, president of the Assn. of Trial Lawyers of America, insisted that the study does not prove trial lawyers contribute more to political candidates than the corporate officers and physicians they frequently sue. He cited a recent study by Citizens’ Action, a consumer group, showing that corporations favoring tort reform gave $24 million to candidates in the last election alone.

Lerach, who was identified as the single largest contributor, could not be reached for comment. In the past, he has described his contributions as “a spit in the ocean” in comparison to those coming from proponents of tort reform.

This new analysis of political contributions by the trial lawyers comes as the Senate is getting ready to begin work on House-passed legislation to revamp the civil litigation system. Among other things, the legislation would impose limits on the class-action suits that Lerach and many other trial lawyers thrive on.

In the past, the trial lawyers have foreclosed congressional action on legal reform by contributing heavily to the Democratic Party, which dominated Congress for four decades until last January. Republicans, meanwhile, made litigation reform a top priority.

As a result, after the election last November, trial lawyers were quickly singled out as one of the primary targets of the new Republican majority in Congress. Indeed, civil litigation reform was high on the list of proposed legislation in the House GOP’s “contract with America.”

In its study, the American Tort Reform Assn., which favors legislation limiting civil litigation, found that about 2,000 of the top plaintiff lawyers in the nation personally contributed $18.07 million to federal candidates between January, 1989, and December, 1994.

At the same time, the group observed that the political action committee of the American Trial Lawyers Assn. contributed $12.9 million during the same period, bringing the total contributions uncovered by the study to more than $30.9 million.

Lerach’s prominence on the list of contributors came as no surprise. Since the mid-1980s, Lerach, partner in the San Diego firm of Milberg Weiss, has been recognized as the leading political activist on behalf of all plaintiff lawyers.

In all, the study estimated that Lerach made contributions to federal candidates totaling $568,257.

While this figure raises the possibility that Lerach may have exceeded the $25,000 annual limit on personal contributions to federal candidates, that is not necessarily the case. Indeed, many of his contributions were made in the names of close relatives or in the form of so-called “soft money” to party committees that does not come under these restrictions.

In the past, however, Lerach has been known to exceed the limit.

Other large trial lawyer contributors from California were identified as Joseph W. Cotchett of Burlingame, who gave $155,700 in the last five years; Marc M. Selzer of Los Angeles, $81,500; Browne Greene of Santa Monica, $68,300; Wylie A. Aitkin of Santa Ana, $60,650; R. Edward Pfiester Jr. of Los Angeles, $53,728; and John J. and Mary Rossi of Aurora, $46,095.