Berke | Farah LLP

Elliot S. Berke serves as Managing Partner of Berke Farah LLP. Prior to founding Berke Farah LLP, Elliot served as a partner and as founding practice group co-chair at McGuireWoods LLP.  He has been named by Washingtonian as one of "Washington's Best Lawyers" and by Chambers USA as a "Nationwide Best Lawyer" consistently since 2011.  His diverse client base consists of federal and state elected and appointed officials, campaign committees, political parties, PACs, corporations, small businesses, trade associations, lobbying firms, public relations firms, nonprofits, artists, and musicians. He represents clients before congressional ethics and oversight committees, the FEC, the DOJ, Inspectors General, and other federal and state departments and agencies and represents musicians on contracts and disputes. Over his career, Elliot has represented presidential candidates, cabinet officials, a Supreme Court Justice, and more than 60 current and former Members of Congress. He has represented the top four leadership positions in the U.S. House of Representatives – Speaker, Majority Leader, Majority Whip, and Conference Chair. He serves as outside counsel to Majority Whip Tom Emmer and many Committee Chairs and rank and file Members of Congress, as well as the NRCC. He also serves as outside counsel to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, having served in that capacity during his entire time in leadership. He currently is a Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Georgia, and served in that same role from 2018-2020, as well as Special Assistant Attorney General for the State of Oregon from 2014-2016. He runs election day war rooms for presidential and gubernatorial candidates.  He is a frequent speaker on political law, and regularly conducts the ethics training for the Members of Congress and Chief of Staff retreats sponsored by the Congressional Institute (where he also serves as its outside counsel).  He is General Counsel & Senior Advisor to the Jack Kemp Foundation as part of his practice. His commentary appears in media outlets including Fox & Friends, Special Report w/Bret Baier, Tucker Carlson Tonight, NBC Nightly News, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USAToday, Politico, SALT Talks, and the Washington Post. He was the Republican National Lawyers Association’s Lawyer of the Year in 2021 and was the International Advisory Expert Election Law Lawyer of the Year in 2022.

Professional Background

Prior to entering private practice full time, Elliot served as the General Counsel of Barbour, Griffith & Rogers, a Fortune rated top government relations firm.  As the firm's chief legal advisor, he oversaw compliance with federal and state laws, workplace legal issues, and worked with outside counsels on litigation in federal court.

From 2004 through 2006, he served as in-house counsel and ethics advisor to the two most senior members of House leadership. As Counsel to the Office of the Speaker and General Counsel to the Office of the House Majority Leader, he was responsible for overseeing ethics and compliance for the speaker, the leader, and their staffs. In the three years he worked in House leadership, he implemented procedures to ensure compliance with House Rules and standards of conduct, consulted with campaign and PAC officials, conducted internal reviews, and worked closely with outside counsel.  Elliot also served as a staff representative on the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG), which represents the leadership on matters including speech or debate immunity and separation of powers. His tenure coincided with a notably active period of federal investigation into issues related to Members and congressional staff, and he collaborated with the House General Counsel on how to best protect the interests of the House. He provided guidance on the constitutionality of numerous pieces of legislation over the course of three Congresses and offered advice on the issuance of committee subpoenas. He also served as the principal policy advisor on homeland security, judiciary, tort reform and campaign finance issues, including on the Class Action Fairness Act, and the reauthorizations of the PATRIOT Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Elliot’s ethics and compliance experience on Capitol Hill was preceded by similar experience within the executive branch. As Special Counsel to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), he oversaw complex and sensitive legal issues for the department. He also advised the Office of the Secretary on questions of ethics, including scheduling issues and FOIA requests. Prior to his service at HUD, he served as a senior associate independent counsel on the Whitewater and Lewinsky federal criminal investigations and worked on multiple grand jury investigations and plea agreements.  Elliot began his legal career as an investigative counsel for Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.

          Law, Politics & Entertainment

Elliot is also well versed in the intersection of law, politics, and entertainment. He has been described as “DC’s liaison to rock ‘n roll” — providing counsel to bands including Yes, Asia, ELP Legacy, Night Ranger, and Gene Loves Jezebel, and helping to produce charity and private events featuring Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl, Bono, Kid Rock, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Lionel Richie, Tony Bennett, Billy Idol, Jelly Roll, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, LA super group Royal Machines, The Who's Roger Daltrey, Susan Tedeschi, Earth, Wind & Fire, Glen Hansard, ZZ Top's Billy F Gibbons, The Alarm's Mike Peters, Trace Adkins, Big & Rich, Vanilla Fudge, Buck Dharma, Joan Baez, Maroon 5, Smokey Robinson, and Gloria & Emilio Estefan, as well as actors Robert Duvall, Maya Angelou, Jeff Bridges, and George Lazenby. He is outside counsel to several entertainment related charities including VetsAid (a veteran's charity founded by Joe Walsh), Above Ground (a mental health charity founded by Jane’s Addiction’s Dave Navarro and Billy Idol’s Billy Morrison), Love Hope Strength (a cancer charity founded by the Alarm’s Mike and Jules Peters), the Robert Duvall Children’s Fund (a children’s charity founded by Robert and Luciana Duvall), and Power to the Patients (a patients’ rights charity fronted by Fat Joe). He is also outside counsel to Bounce, producer of MusiCares and the Library of Congress’s Gershwin Prize.  He is a partner in Across the Aisle Entertainment, LLC and has consulted on feature and documentary film projects and was Executive Producer of the award-winning documentary feature The Man in the Camo Jacket (www.maninthecamojacket.com) and its soundtrack as well as the forthcoming documentary Crossing the Great Divide. A perpetual student of history, he played an instrumental role in the dedication of a bust of Winston Churchill in the U.S. Capitol in 2013 and served on the executive committee for A Celebration of Freedom:  25 Years of Democracy – A Salute to Vaclav Havel, a three-day series of events in 2014 that included the dedication of a bust of Havel in the U.S. Capitol chaired by Presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Personal

Elliot is a cum laude graduate of Wake Forest University, where he was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha and Phi Alpha Theta Honor Societies, and Emory University School of Law, where he served as Executive Articles Editor of the Emory International Law Review.  He is currently on the Boards of Directors of the following organizations:

• Above Ground (Chairman of the Board);

• American Friends of the Czech Republic;

• DC Blues Society;

• Evil Empire Speech Memorial Foundation (Chairman of the Board);

• Folk Americana Roots Music Hall of Fame;

• Lawyers Democracy Fund (President);

• Love Hope Strength Foundation; and

• Vaclav Havel Library Foundation.

He serves as an advisor to the Music Division of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the following organizations:

• Election Assistance Commission (appointed by Speaker Paul Ryan in 2017 and reappointed by House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy in 2019 and 2021 and by Speaker McCarthy in 2023);

• International Churchill Society; and

• Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA) (Advisory Board 2004 - ); (Board of Governors 2004-2020); (President 2016-2018).

He is active in alumni affairs for his alma mater Wake Forest University and currently serves on the Athletics Advisory Council. From July 2012 through July 2014, he served as the President of the Wake Forest University Alumni Association and served two terms on the College Board of Visitors. He also served as the DC Regional Chair for the most recent capital campaign.  He lives in Arlington, Virginia with his two children.  He coached CYO basketball for nine years. In his spare time, he plays rhythm guitar in the band the DePlorables.