A law firm hired by the House of Representatives Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) has filed a motion to withdraw from serving as its counsel.No conservative individual or group should ever do business with King and Spalding again because they can't be trusted to follow through on your case. Should some liberal activist wave his arms at them in a scary manner they'll get the vapors and head for the hills.
King and Spalding represented the group and last week, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced that King and Spalding partner Paul Clement, a former Bush solicitor general, would take the lead.
"Today the firm filed a motion to withdraw from its engagement to represent the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the House of Representatives on the constitutional issues regarding Section III of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act," King and Spalding chairman Robert D. Hayes Jr. said in a statement. "Last week we worked diligently through the process required for withdrawal."
Soon after the firm issued that statement, Clement, announced he was leaving the firm and joining Bancroft PLLC. In that new role, he will still serve as counsel to the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group.
"My resignation is, of course, prompted by the firm's decision to withdraw as counsel for the Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the United States House of Representatives in defense of Section III of the Defense of Marriage Act," Clement said in a resignation letter obtained by Fox News. "To be clear, I take this step not because of strongly held views about this statute...""Instead, I resign out of the firmly-held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client's legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters. Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do."
King and Spalding had come under fire from gay and lesbian rights advocates for signing on to represent the House in defending the law.
Red State notes the firm isn't living up to the standards of their founder:
King & Spalding itself, as Paul Clement notes in his resignation, is betraying the legacy of former U.S. Attorney General Griffin Bell who, in his law school commencement address to his and my alma mater, Mercer University, said, “You are not required to take every matter that is presented to you, but having assumed a representation, it becomes your duty to finish the representation. Sometimes you will make a bad bargain, but as professionals, you are still obligated to carry out that representation.”Pitiful. What a bunch of wimps.
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1 comment:
Paul Clements' problem is that there are nine DOMA cases pending in several jurisdictions. King & Spalding has sufficient staff to assist; a six attorney firm is going to be stretched beyond its capacity to undertake this assignment. I'm not so sure that Boner will want to go that route. He may try to find another law firm.
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