Trevor Potter is a member in Caplin & Drysdale’s Washington, D.C. office, where he leads the firm’s Political Activity Law Practice. He is one of the country’s best-known and most experienced campaign and election lawyers, and a former Commissioner (1991-1995) and Chairman (1994) of the Federal Election Commission.
Mr. Potter advises clients on federal, state, and local campaign finance laws, the use of the Internet for political activity, government ethics requirements, lobbying registration, and related government affairs issues. His clients include trade associations, nonprofit organizations, think tanks, political committees, internet companies, and corporations and their PACs.
He currently serves as General Counsel to the John McCain 2008 campaign and held that position with the McCain 2000 campaign. He was also Deputy General Counsel of the Bush 1988 campaign. Mr. Potter is the founding President and General Counsel of the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit which assisted in the legal defense of the McCain-Feingold law on behalf of the Congressional sponsors. He is currently on leave from that position.
Mr. Potter is also a non-resident Fellow at the Brookings Institution. He has published several books and articles in the field, including: Political Activity, Lobbying Laws and Gift Rules Guide (West Publishing, Third Edition 2008, Second Edition 1999); The New Campaign Finance Sourcebook, Brookings Institution, 2005;
Federal Election Law and the Internet, Brookings Institution, 2000; and The Campaign Finance Sourcebook, Brookings Institution, 1997 ; and He is a frequent guest speaker at a variety of professional meetings, has testified before Congress on federal election proposals and campaign finance regulation, and has taught campaign finance law at the University of Virginia School of Law and Oxford University. He is Chair of the Election Law Committee of the American Bar Association's Administrative Law Section, and liaison to the Standing Committee on Election Law of the ABA.