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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Tue Jun 10, 2014, 10:06 AM Jun 2014

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 country’s 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 company’s CEO, Brendan Eich, resigned in April after being denounced by gay marriage supporters for a donation he had made in support of California’s 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/

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Law firms flock to same-sex marriage proponents, while shunning conservatives (Original Post) DonViejo Jun 2014 OP
Waiting for the "lawyers are evil" brigade... jberryhill Jun 2014 #1
No. I think most of them have the best of intentions. Aristus Jun 2014 #5
K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t RKP5637 Jun 2014 #2
Amish lawyers shunning? I didn't know there were Amish lawyers. yellowcanine Jun 2014 #3
That's remarkable. closeupready Jun 2014 #4

Aristus

(66,096 posts)
5. No. I think most of them have the best of intentions.
Tue Jun 10, 2014, 10:27 AM
Jun 2014

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.

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