Brody's Notes... LGBT Legal Groups Consider Breaking Ties With DC Law Firm Over DOMA Defense

By Mark Singer (Washington DC) APR 22 | Two of the most prominent LGBTQ legal assistance & advocacy groups have told the Huffington Post that those organizations are mulling over disassociating themselves from the Washington D. C. legal firm of King & Spaulding that was tapped by the House GOP to defend the so-called Defense of Marriage Act.

The announcement Monday by House Speaker John Boehner, (R-OH), that former Bush Administration Solicitor General Paul Clement and his legal team from King & Spalding had signed a contract to defend DOMA in the pending federal suits up to a contractual limit of a half a million dollars, has been met with outraged reactions from the LGBTQ community and organizations.

In an interview with the Huffington Post, Jon Davidson, legal director of Lambda Legal, the nation's oldest and largest legal organization working for LGBT equality, had one word on the firm's decision to take the case: "Depressing."

"I think it's going to hurt them in their recruiting of future lawyers," he told The Huffington Post. "As legal director, I would take the position that we should not use them as cooperating attorneys with us -- that is, people who work with us on a pro bono basis in cases," said Davidson. "I wouldn't want to team with them, so long as they're actively harming our community by defending DOMA."

The Huffington Post also reports:

D'Arcy Kemnitz, the executive director of the National LGBT Bar Association, an affiliate of the American Bar Association, said the group has been hosting a career fair for law students to connect with law firms and other potential employers for nearly a decade. King & Spalding has attended the event annually -- a fact it boasts on its "LGBT Lawyers" website.

But now, says Kemnitz, the association may evaluate whether to change that relationship moving forward.

"That would be a policy decision that would be coming from our board of directors," she said. "That would be something that decision-makers would decide between now and Sept. 8. That decision has not yet been made. If and when it is made, we will send out a note to everybody so they know."

Another aspect that has the LGBT legal community disturbed was the imposition of a "gag" clause in the contract between the House and King & Spaulding. Kemnitz said that what is troublesome was not the fact that King & Spalding took the case, but the provision of the contract leaving sexual orientation and gender identity out of its nondiscrimination clause.

That provision sends a starkly different message contrasting sharply with language on the firm's website about its efforts to appeal to potential associates as they graduate from law schools:

King & Spalding actively recruits LGBT law students and seeks opportunities to partner with LGBT student organizations to help their members successfully navigate the process of moving from law student to lawyer. The firm annually attends Lavender Law, the National LGBT Bar Association’s conference and career fair. Recently, an LGBT Summer Associate received the King & Spalding Diversity Fellowship, which provides $10,000 in recognition of outstanding academic achievement and leadership to candidates from a diverse background.

RELATED @ LGBTQNation:  Law firm hired by House GOP imposes anti-gay ‘gag order’ on employees