WHAT'S NEXT

Tell Law Firm King & Spalding: Don't Defend Bigotry Against LGBT People
  1. Signatures
    1,523 out of 2,500
    Petitioning
    1. Diversity Committee member (+ 20 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • Diversity Committee member (Ralph Levy)
      • Diversity Committee member (Catherine O'Neil)
      • Diversity Committee member (Richard Cirillo)
      • Diversity Committee member (Alan Dial)
      • Diversity Committee member (Anne Cox)
      • Diversity Committee member (Tracie Renfroe)
      • Diversity Committee member (Josh O'Harra)
      • Diversity Committee member (Michael Egan)
      • Diversity Committee member (Graciela Rodriguez)
      • Diversity Committee Chair (Samuel Matchett)
      • Diversity Committee member (Chris Jackson)
      • Diversity Committee member (Caroline Abney)
      • Diversity Committee member (Mason Stephenson)
      • Diversity Committee member (Ana Lesce)
      • Diversity Committee member (Steven Jones)
      • Diversity Committee member (Emily Leung)
      • Diversity Committee member (Robert Woo)
      • Diversity Committee member (Lisa Keyes)
      • Diversity Committee member (Margaret Brivanlou)
      • Diversity Committee member (Jennifer Fox Crisp)
      • Diversity Committee member (Jaron Brown)
  2. Created By
    Michael Jones
    Boston, MA
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
How We Won

Apr 25, 2011

U.S. Rep. John Boehner had tapped the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding to defend the constitutionality of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act. Outraged about the decision of King & Spalding to take up this case, more than 1,500 Change.org members wrote the law firm, urging them to withdraw from the case. 

Change.org's petition was covered in Atlanta's LGBT publication, ProjectQ Atlanta, where it was announced that local activists would also be protesting the law firm. But in response to the outcry, the chairperson of King & Spalding, Robert Hays, announced that his firm would withdraw from the case. "I determined that the process used for vetting this engagement was inadequate. Ultimately I am responsible for any mistakes that occurred and apologize for the challenges this may have created," Hays said. 

King & Spalding is a major international law firm, with offices in more than a dozen cities around the globe. They proudly claim on their website that diversity is a major priority at the firm, and they single out LGBT issues on their website, saying that they value the contributions of LGBT employees and LGBT clients.

Yet if King & Spalding is so LGBT-friendly, why is a senior partner at the law firm working with U.S. House Speaker Rep. John Boehner to defend one of the most anti-LGBT laws in the entire country?

Paul Clement, a partner with King & Spalding, has been tapped by Rep. Boehner to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) -- a law that bars LGBT people in the United States from having their relationships recognized. This discriminatory law prevents LGBT couples from sharing in more than 1,100 benefits that straight married couples are able to access, and is also responsible for tearing binational couples apart. Is this type of blatant and unjust discrimination something that King & Spalding wants their name attached to?

History doesn't look kindly on law firms that defend bigoted laws. Does King & Spalding want to go down in history as the law firm that tried to keep LGBT people second class citizens in this country?

Demand that King & Spalding's Diversity Committee respond to Clement's decision to defend DOMA. They should condemn this decision, and in every way try to disassociate themselves from supporting such an immoral, unjust, and discriminatory law.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Don't defend discrimination against gay and lesbian Americans

Dear King & Spalding Diversity Committee,

I am deeply saddened and upset to learn that a partner with King & Spalding, Paul Clement, has signed on to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in federal court. This piece of legislation has, for fifteen years, kept LGBT Americans second class citizens, denying them over 1,100 benefits that heterosexual married couples receive in the United States. Even worse, DOMA is directly responsible for forcibly separating binational couples in the United States, breaking and tearing apart families.

What saddens me most is that I always thought of King & Spalding as a place where diversity, and a commitment to the dignity of LGBT people, was tantamount. On your website (http://www.kslaw.com/About-Us/Diversity/Diversity-Committee) you list so many positive steps your firm has taken to show how you value LGBT employees and clients. Yet with this news, that a senior partner in your firm has taken up the cause of defending discrimination against LGBT Americans, your reputation in my eyes has suffered.

Does King & Spalding really want to be the law firm associated with defending DOMA? When history books are written, does King & Spalding want to have their name down on the side of a law that discriminates viciously and openly against LGBT Americans?

This news is upsetting. I hope your diversity committee will make an effort to convince Mr. Clement not to take this case, and that your firm will choose not to make money off of a law that keeps gay and lesbian Americans second class citizens.

Thank you for your time.

[Your name]

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