Law firms flock to same-sex marriage proponents, while shunning conservatives
Source: Reuters
By Joan Biskupic
(Reuters) As U.S. lawsuits seeking gay-marriage rights move toward a likely showdown at the Supreme Court next year, major law firms are rushing to get involved but only on the side of the proponents.
A Reuters review of more than 100 court filings during the past year shows that at least 30 of the countrys largest firms are representing challengers to state laws banning same-sex marriage. Not a single member of the Am Law 200, a commonly used ranking of the largest U.S. firms by revenue, is defending gay marriage prohibitions.
These numbers and interviews with lawyers on both sides suggest that the legal industry has reached its Mozilla moment. The software companys CEO, Brendan Eich, resigned in April after being denounced by gay marriage supporters for a donation he had made in support of Californias since-overturned gay marriage ban. Now in a similar vein, attorneys at major law firms are getting the message that if they want to litigate against gay marriage they should do so elsewhere.
Earlier this year Gene Schaerr, a partner at Winston Strawn in Washington, D.C., quit the 850-lawyer firm so he could represent his home state, Utah, in its defense of a ban on same-sex marriage. Schaerr, a Mormon, told colleagues in an email that became public that he was following his religious and family duty. Schaerr declined to comment, as did a Winston Strawn spokeswoman.
-snip-
Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/06/10/law-firms-flock-to-same-sex-marriage-proponents-while-shunning-conservatives/
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Aristus
(66,096 posts)For the ones who don't, though, the prospect of increased demands for wills, living wills, powers of attorney, and even legal separations and divorces, must be enticing.
RKP5637
(67,032 posts)yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)closeupready
(29,503 posts)K&R