Charles E. Borden

Charles E. Borden is co-leader of the Political Law Team and a partner in the Public Policy & Regulation Group at Holland & Knight. Mr. Borden focuses his practice on the intersection of law and political activity and regularly counsels multinational corporations on regulatory and compliance obligations.

Mr. Borden advises clients on the various regulatory regimes that regulate political activity and private sector engagement with the political and electoral process. Those regimes include i) federal, state and local campaign finance law; ii) the federal Lobbying Disclosure Act (LDA) and Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA); iii) state and local lobbying laws; iv) federal regulation of municipal advisors; v) the federal pay-to-play laws, including MSRB Rule G-37, SEC Rule 206(4)-5, CFTC Rule 23.451 and FINRA Rule 2030; vi) the rules governing political intelligence, including the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act); vii) state and local pay-to-play regimes; and ix) federal, state and local laws regulating gifts and entertainment, conflicts of interest, and government ethics and qualified blind trusts.

Mr. Borden’s political law practice includes i) advising such clients in the design and implementation of comprehensive political law compliance programs and providing associated regulatory counseling; ii) conducting internal inquires and compliance reviews into clients’ potential political law exposure and representing corporate clients in regulatory enforcement matters, congressional investigations and criminal proceedings involving alleged political law violations; and iii) serving as political law regulatory counsel in connection with politically sensitive transactions.

In addition, Mr. Borden has represented members of Congress and numerous appointees and potential appointees to senior positions in the Executive Branch of the federal government, including appointees to senior positions in the White House, U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of the Treasury and various national-security-related offices. He counsels such individuals on federal conflict-of-interest, security clearance and financial disclosure requirements and advises them on strategies for resolving legal and political issues connected to their government service.

Mr. Borden is a visiting Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. The Centre focuses on cross-border regulatory analysis, including with respect to the regulation of public corruption and political activities. Mr. Borden also co-teaches a Government Ethics: Scandal and Reform course at Harvard Law School, where he is a visiting Lecturer on Law.

In his Strategic Counseling practice, Mr. Borden frequently assists clients in crafting legislative and regulatory solutions to complex problems and advises clients on the management of legislative and public policy risk. He participates in election-law-related litigation and has authored numerous appellate and U.S. Supreme Court briefs on redistricting and other political law issues. He also regularly counsels clients on federal administrative law issues, federal and state freedom of information statutes, and public corruption regimes.