Marc Elias


Marc Erik Elias is an American attorney. He is a partner at Perkins Coie and head of the firm's Political Law practice. He served as general counsel for the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign and John Kerry 2004 presidential campaign.

Early life and education

Born to a Jewish family in New York City, Elias was raised in Suffern, New York. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Hamilton College in 1990. He then earned both a master's degree in political science from Duke University and a J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law.

Career

Elias is the head of the Political Law practice at Perkins Coie, a large Seattle-based law firm with many political clients. He represents the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Democratic Governors Association, and many Democratic members of Congress. He has represented the leadership of the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. He was the attorney of record for the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry and the 2016 campaign of Hillary Clinton.
He served as lead counsel for Senator Al Franken in the 2008 United States Senate election in Minnesota recount and contest, the longest recount and contest in American history. Elias has testified before committees in both houses of Congress and before the Federal Election Commission on campaign finance. Elias has worked on voting rights and redistricting lawsuits in Virginia, Ohio, Nevada, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Texas, Florida and North Carolina.
In 2010, Elias sought advisory opinions from the Federal Election Commission declaring that certain Google and Facebook advertisements were covered by the "small items" and "impracticable" exemptions of the law that otherwise requires a political advertisement to include a disclaimer revealing who paid for it. The commission granted Google's request in a divided vote, and deadlocked on Facebook's request.
In April 2015, Hillary Clinton engaged Elias as attorney of record for her 2016 presidential campaign. According to The Washington Post, in April 2016, Elias hired Fusion GPS on behalf of the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to create the research that resulted in the Steele dossier. On October 24, 2017, Perkins Coie released Fusion GPS from its client confidentiality obligation.
Elias serves on the Board of Advisors of Let America Vote, an organization founded by former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander that aims to end voter suppression.
Elias served as the attorney for Dan McCready during the investigation of fraud allegations in the 2018 North Carolina's 9th congressional district election. In January 2019, Elias became general counsel of the Kamala Harris 2020 presidential campaign.