Executive Compensation at the Federalist Society

The Federalist Society is legally known as the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies but generally goes by the shortened version of its name.  A tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) (3), the Federalist Society is an organization of conservatives and libertarians (a membership organization with three levels of memberships:  student, lawyer, and faculty) who are “committed to the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be.”

There are 12 voting members of the governing body, 8 of whom are independent, and all of whom are male.

A small non-profit, the Federalist Society raises about $20 million annually (primarily from contributions, gifts; membership dues accounted for about $400,000 in 2020), generally has what they raised or slightly less than they raised, and accumulated $30 million in net assets.

In 2020, expenses totaled $20 million with the two largest expenses reported to be compensation ($6.4 million) and travel and conferences ($5.3 million).

51 employees received $6.4 million in compensation which equates to an average compensation of $125,000.  However, only 15 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the 9 most highly compensated reported to be:

• $706,619:  Eugene B Meyer, Director, President, and CEO
• $505,171:  Leonard A Leo, Director, Co-Chairman
• $408,079:  Lee Liberman Otis, Director, SVP
• $383,269:  Dean A Reuter, Director of Practice Groups
• $275,151:  Douglas C Ubben, Director of Finance
• $274,299:  Peter K Redpath, Director of Student Division
• $230,274:  Jonathan R Bunch, State Courts, VP/Director
• $217,605:  Nathan Kaczmarek, VP and Director, Regulation and Transparency
• $194,857:  Lisa Ezell, VP and Director, Lawyers Chapter

The 9 most highly compensated employees (8 males and 1 female) received $3.2 million in compensation.  The remaining 42 employees received $3.2 million in compensation.

9 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation; the 5 most highly compensated were reported to be:

• $1,636,482:  Creative Response Concepts, of Alexandria, VA for media training
• $  658,075:  Phaedo Creative, of Washington, DC for video production
• $  407,500:  Rube Awakening, of Arlington, VA for documentary production
• $  266,124:  Coronation Media, of Emmitsburg, MD for video production
• $  232,200:  Motivo Media, of Orlando, FL for video production

To read the IRS Form 990 (2019 for the year ending September 30, 2020), click here.