With Republicans in charge of the White House and Congress in 2025, leaders of Big Law congressional investigation practices say they expect to stay busy, although lawmakers may have a ramp-up period next year in starting investigations.

Congressional investigation practices are often a lucrative business for some firms’ Washington, D.C., offices, since they involve "bet-the-company" matters that frequently rope in corporate boards and top executives.

Republicans' oversight agenda will likely draw several industries and companies into investigations, without a Democratic administration for Congress to conduct oversight on, including on matters such as diversity, equity and inclusion, environmental, social and governance, immigration, social media content moderation, and the supply chain, among others.

“The committees that might otherwise have been conducting oversight of the administration will be focused primarily on the private sector. So there's just going to be a lot of activity for our corporate clients,” said Alyssa DaCunha, co-chair of Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr’s congressional investigations practice.

Ed O’Callaghan, chair of Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s congressional investigations practice, echoed that it “looks as though most of the investigative authority will be focused on private companies and private industry rather than aggressively seeking information from the party in power.”

The new oversight agenda may include looking into companies’ DEI and ESG policies and how that may impact their fiduciary duties to their shareholders; conservative social media content moderation; policies surrounding emerging technologies; and reviews of the federal workforce and government funding, among other things, according to several congressional investigation attorneys.

“There's a lot of uncertainty and how it's all going to play out, but I think the areas that we can be more certain of are at this intersection of national security, trade policy and technology, right? Because that's obviously such a focus of the president-elect,” said Michael Bahar, co-lead of congressional investigations at Eversheds Sutherland.

“I don't think that there's a single industry that's safe anymore, safe meaning like off-limits from investigations,” Hogan Lovells partner Michael Bell said.
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Ramping Up

Still, there may be some slow periods for congressional investigations work for law firms next year, as the Senate is preoccupied with Trump administration confirmations and what could be a full legislative docket for both chambers.

“From a pure bandwidth perspective, there could be some impact, certainly at the beginning of the new administration, where there will be a huge focus on confirming appointees to the various positions within the Trump administration,” Bell said. “And that will take up a significant portion of the bandwidth in the Senate, and so it may delay, or slow, to some extent, the initiation of some investigations, but I do think over time, we're going to see a fairly significant increase in that activity in the Senate.”

Kirkland & Ellis litigation partner Reginald Brown echoed that the confirmation process and legislative agenda could dig into some of Congress’ time.

"The greatest friends that corporations have are the calendar and the clock," Brown said. "There are a lot of things that people will have to do in terms of confirmation and attempts to pass the conservative agenda while they have a narrow majority, and so that will eat up some time, but it won't eat up all the time."

While the focus for Congress, at least initially, might not be on holding investigative hearings, staffers are still likely to be behind the scenes doing the groundwork for investigations, sending out letters to companies and entities, among other inquiries, according to several congressional investigative attorneys. Those activities are still likely to drum up business for firms’ congressional investigation practices, though how much business remains to be seen.

“Certainly the volume at different time periods might be less, but we have seen Republicans able to walk and chew gum at the same time, and there are a number of Republicans who are very interested in investigating and prolific with their investigations,” said Susanne Grooms, a partner and leader of Cooley’s congressional investigation practice.

One caveat is the House, where Republicans have already been in charge for the past two years, conducting a host of investigations, some of which could carry over into the next session.

The House Select Committee on Strategic Competition between the U.S. and the Chinese Communist Party, for instance, has been busy, recently sending out letters to industry leaders in semiconductor manufacturing equipment regarding business sales to China.

"I think you're going to see continued activity from the China committee in the House, and depending on who the players are in the Senate, you could see an interest, particularly the readiness of various companies for a change in the supply chain,” Brown said.
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Slim Majority

While Republicans are poised to have total control over Congress, their margins are expected to be slim, which could complicate moving legislation forward, putting more emphasis on their investigative engines.

“Even though Republicans, it appears, will have control of the House and Senate, their majorities will be by very slim margins, and when it's difficult to legislate, Congress often investigates,” Bell said on Wednesday before projections indicated that Republicans would win the House.

Overall, congressional investigation attorneys indicated that they see a steady pipeline for work entering next year, though attorneys with connections to Republican legislators may be in high demand.

"There will probably be a premium on finding lawyers with good ties on the Republican side of the aisle, but the bottom line is that the trend toward more oversight activity rather than less is likely to continue,” Brown said.