Elite private universities’ legal and lobbying bills soared as schools tried to counter the Trump administration’s attack on top institutions, university tax returns show.
Major universities, which are multibillion-dollar enterprises, have long worked with outside law firms and lobbyists. But the Trump administration’s campaign prompted many top schools to shell out even more as they tried to preserve research funding, navigate investigations and dodge the wrath of a White House bent on remaking academia to its liking.
The tax returns, filed in recent weeks, reflect spending between July 1, 2024, and June 30, 2025, so they encompass just the first five months or so of the Trump administration. Government officials contend that their effort is intended to stamp out “woke” ideology and bigotry from campuses.
The I.R.S.’s line items for legal and lobbying expenses only reflect services by people who do not directly work for universities, and they do not detail what those people are working on, meaning that some fees are likely tied to other matters.
Still, the tax returns are glimpses at the costly strategies designed to fend off a campaign that many administrators and professors believe threatens American universities’ independence.
It was an expensive year for Ivy League schools.
Every Ivy League institution reported increases in legal fees, lobbying bills or both.
Across the eight schools — Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania and Yale — legal spending rose 37 percent, to more than $333 million.
The schools did not spend as much on outside lobbying, totaling $4.1 million, but those costs increased by 76 percent from the prior fiscal year.
The Trump administration’s biggest Ivy League targets had the largest legal bills. Harvard spent $126.6 million, a 58 percent increase. Columbia paid $93.6 million, a rise of roughly 46 percent.
But schools that avoided the most aggressive White House measures spent more on lawyers, too. For instance, Yale said its costs went up 46 percent.
Columbia and Harvard declined to comment. Yale did not respond to a request for comment.
In some cases, universities have hired lawyers or firms with Republican ties.
Other public and private schools also got big bills.
Universities beyond the Ivy League also reported higher expenses.
Johns Hopkins University, which said in a statement it “strongly advocates for our research, education and patient care missions,” reported that its outside legal costs had risen almost 163 percent, to nearly $19.3 million. It ramped up its lobbying spending 63 percent, a figure encompassing work on behalf of its sprawling enterprise.
George Washington University said its external legal bills had approached $15 million. In the prior year, they were below $6 million. And the University of Southern California said its legal costs had risen by more than $6 million, roughly 17 percent.
George Washington said it hired people to help it “navigate increasingly complex government and regulatory matters, and support compliance,” while U.S.C. said its legal costs had been “incurred to protect and advance the university’s mission of educating students and conducting research that saves lives and benefits society.”
Public universities are also feeling strains.
James B. Milliken, the University of California president, said in May that the 10-campus system had faced “tens of millions of dollars in added legal expenses” as it dealt with federal inquiries. Through the third quarter of its current fiscal year, the system spent $77.5 million on outside legal help; it budgeted $60 million for the year.
Some schools that have come under federal pressure use different fiscal calendars and have not yet filed their returns.
Some schools spent more on lobbying.
Cornell, Dartmouth and Penn were the only three Ivy League schools to report less legal spending. Dartmouth, which has avoided the most damaging attacks from the Trump administration, reduced its legal spending by 12 percent. All of them, though, reported increases in their lobbying work.
Penn said its lobbying costs had surged almost 744 percent; last July, it announced a settlement with the Trump administration that included no financial penalties. In the prior year, it spent much less on lobbying than many of its peers. The university declined to comment.
Dartmouth’s lobbying spending climbed 534 percent after it spent about $84,000 the previous year. Cornell, which in November 2025 cut a deal with the Trump administration that included $60 million in payouts, increased its lobbying spending by 25 percent.
A Cornell spokesperson said the university was talking to policymakers and agencies to “restore research funding and prevent regulatory changes that would harm our educational programs and land-grant mission.” And Dartmouth said its spending partly reflected an effort, which it began in early 2024, to deepen communication with Washington “to ensure the institution has a voice on federal policy issues” affecting the school.
Other top schools made similar moves. Vanderbilt University reported that its legal spending fell 10 percent, but that its tab for external lobbyists more than doubled. The university declined to comment.
But its filing reflected just the price for the hired guns. In an interview last year, Daniel Diermeier, Vanderbilt’s chancellor, estimated his time in Washington had roughly tripled in 2025.
