According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Akin Gump was one of the top law firms contributing to federal candidates during the 2012 election cycle, donating $2.56 million, 66% to Democrats. By comparison, during that same period Kirkland & Ellis donated $2.49 million, 59% to Republicans, while oil conglomerate ExxonMobil donated $2.66 million, 88% to Republicans. Since 1990, Akin Gump has contributed $19.84 million to federal candidates, and since 2003 has spent $8 million on lobbying. The firm's clients includes the governments of Japan, South Korea, the Maldives, and Nicaragua. Paul Manafort, a central figure in the 2017 Special Counsel investigation, was being represented by Melissa Laurenza, a partner of the firm. Melissa Laurenza's role in the Russian investigation centers from her representation of Manafort. The United States Office of Special Counsel compelled Melissa Laurenza to testify in the case. In October 2017, "New York University law professor Stephen Gillers said the judge was persuaded that there was significant evidence Manafort and Gates had duped their lawyer into sending inaccurate letters to Justice about their lobbying efforts and about what emails might exist about the work." In 2019 lawyers from this firm represented Catherine Croft, US State Department Ukraine Specialist, when giving testimony to the Select Committee on Intelligence, US House of Representatives. In 2018, the firm was again selected for The American Lawyer's A-List, the annual ranking of the country's 20 leading law firms. 2017 marked the firm's 15th appearance on "Corporate Board Member"'s list of the nation's top 20 corporate law firms. In 2019, for the 11th year out of the last 12, Akin Gump was named to The National Law Journal's "Appellate Hot List" of firms that "[won] big in federal and state appeals courts across the country." Yale Law Women, the largest student organization at Yale Law School, named Akin Gump to its 2019 list of Top 10 Firms for Family Friendliness and, in 2020, as one of only three law firms to its list of Top Firms for Working Mothers and Family Planning. In October 2017, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association presented Akin Gump with the Thomas L. Sager Award in recognition of the firm's "sustained commitment to improving the hiring, retention and promotion of diverse attorneys." (The firm won the award four times previously.) In 2019, for the 12th year in a row, Akin Gump received a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign's Corporate Equality Index, which rates employers on their treatment of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.