Contacts:
Carol A. Licko, Miami
Sean R. Gallagher, Denver
John C. Keeney Jr., Washington, D.C.

Bipartisan in approach and composition, Hogan & Hartson’s voting rights and election litigation group has represented both major political parties and their constituents — from federal and state officials and candidates to fundraisers and contributors.

In the 2006 election cycle, we were FEC compliance counsel for a successful congressional candidate and in the 2002 election cycle, we advised a candidate involved in the year’s closest congressional election. Due to our involvement in the first national election involving the newly mandated provisional ballots, our attorneys now provide clients with guidance on the new federal mandates for those ballots. Members of the group have served as counsel to a Florida Attorney General, a Florida Governor, and a Colorado Governor and U.S. congressmen. Group members also include the past President of the Washington, D.C. Bar, the current Chair of the Standing Committee on Election Law of the American Bar Association, and one of the top 10 election law attorneys in the country, according to the Legal Times.

Our attorneys regularly advise candidates, individuals, corporations, political action committees, and Section 527 organizations on federal and state election law compliance, including enforcement matters and advisory opinion requests. Firm attorneys have handled Section 5 preclearance and redistricting litigation in Washington, D.C., Florida, Colorado, Mississippi, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, Chicago, and Los Angeles.

Related Experience

• We are co-counsel for intervenors in litigation challenging the constitutionality of campaign finance laws in Connecticut, including the First Amendment issues involved in a ban on political contributions by lobbyists and contractors, and whether the public financing scheme discriminates against minor parties.
• We are assisting the Law Department of the City of New York in federal court litigation concerning its language minority assistance program for Chinese and Korean-speaking voters, and on issues related to planning services for those voters in upcoming elections.
• The firm filed amicus briefs on behalf of one of the two major political parties in support of a petition seeking Supreme Court review of a Second Circuit decision invalidating the New York statutes that govern judicial elections. The Supreme Court granted certiorari, as our client urged, and will hear the case in the October 2007 term.
• When Colorado’s legislature could not come to a consensus over the lines for the state’s new legislative districts, we represented the Governor in the lawsuits that followed. Ultimately, a judge redrew the districts.
• We served as lead trial counsel for one of the two major political parties, winning a major Section 5 case in Washington, D.C. and trying and winning a significant Section 2 case in Montgomery, Alabama.
• We have counseled numerous presidential candidates, a major political party (including longtime Co-chair of its National Lawyers Council), credentials committees of a major political party, and have served as a hearing officer deciding credentials challenges at two national conventions.
• We represented the NAACP in a Supreme Court case, Johnson v. DeGrandy, in a matter involving the redistricting of Miami, Florida under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
• Our attorneys represented a state political party and filed an amicus brief for The Media Institute in the case challenging the constitutionality of the McCain-Feingold Act.
• In the 2002 congressional election, we represented a U.S. congressman in the verification of provisional ballots and the associated recount following the election, which included development of litigation and public relations strategy and representation in a trial under the Voting Rights Act.
• Many firm lawyers and legal assistants answered hotline calls and worked at the polls as part of Election Protection in the 2004 presidential election. Election Protection, the largest pro bono project in American history, provided information to voters seeking to register and vote.
• We successfully defended a group of Colorado state clerks and recorders in a lawsuit brought two weeks before the 2004 presidential election against an attempt by a political organization to eliminate the state's voter identification requirements.
• One of our attorneys served as lead litigation counsel in Colorado for the Bush-Cheney 2004 Campaign.