June 24, 2022
"Discord over gun rights erupted within the law firm that secured Thursday’s Second Amendment victory at the Supreme Court..."
"... with Kirkland & Ellis LLP announcing shortly after the decision that it would no longer take firearms cases and that it was parting ways with the two star partners who won the case.
After a Kirkland news release praising Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, and Erin Murphy, the two announced they were opening their own firm.
'Unfortunately, we were given a stark choice: either withdraw from ongoing representations or withdraw from the firm,' Mr. Clement said. 'Anyone who knows us and our views regarding professional responsibility and client loyalty knows there was only one course open to us: We could not abandon ongoing representations just because a client’s position is unpopular in some circles.'... After recent mass shootings, other Kirkland clients began expressing reservations over the firm’s work for the gun movement, a person familiar with the matter said. Kirkland 'started getting a lot of pressure post-Uvalde, hearing from several big-dollar clients that they were uncomfortable,' this person said. 'Several partners agreed that they should drop that representation.'"
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43 comments:
Without this distraction, Kirkland & Ellis can focus its efforts on representing Guantanamo prisoners.
Everyone loves the free market until their sacred cow gets gored.
Big black mark for K&E. Reminds me a little of the New Yorker cartoon of a guy at a big desk with his case books, law diploma etc on the wall behind him interviewing a new client, and saying “You have an excellent case, Mr. Jones. How much justice can you afford?”
More generally I am bemused by the (loudly) self-confessed frailty of so many people when something happens that doesn’t suit their every whim. “I feel uncomfortable” is now the justification for destroying every kind of relationship, personal or commercial?
What absolute craven weasels Kirkland is staffed by.
The tolerance and diversity crowd strikes again.
I wish the winners well in the new endeavors. They protected the freedom of millions of others and deserve their own.
Based on the excerpt, i don’t see discord over gun rights within the firm. I see discord over perceived association with gun rights among the clients and craven cowardice within the firm.
Kirkland employs 3,025 lawyers. The have 490 equity partners and 763 non-equity partners. But, the don't have a place for two lawyers, who just won a big case that upholds a constitutional right.
Isn't this the second time Clement left a firm because it wanted him to fire an unpopular client?
He got pushed out after winning a Supreme Court case. What a stupid timeline we live in.
It's all part of a once-in-a-lifetime political realignment following painful cognitive dissonance. For quite a while the left preached openness, tolerance, and diversity. Their actions haven't matched in the slightest. Some "right wing" people like George Will, Liz Cheney, etc. discovered they may not be right wing after all. Some "left wing" people are now speaking like libertarianism about freedom of choice and constitutional principles.
White shoe law firms were always beholden to ultra-wealthy urban people, so it's no shock that a greased-palm urban business is doing what it takes to keep their biggest clients happy.
Cancellation leads to the creation of parallel and competing subcultures, and ultimately balance. Or genocide.
Kirkland and Ellis made its name representing Republican business interests, so it’s not surprising they would be representing the Republican side in gun cases. If the alternative here was for the partners with the big-dollar business clients to leave, then Kirkland and Ellis made the right business decision. Or it could be that the rainmaker partners were annoyed to be effectively subsidizing the “star partners”. But, if we accept that it was the firm’s big business clients who precipitated the expulsion of the two partners, that suggests that a rift is developing between pro-business Republicans and pro-nutter Republicans.
What would John Adams, Thomas Moore and Atticus Finch think?
This very issue was the subject of this week’s FedSoc lecture by the former SCOTUS law clerk.
It is as though you people believe that the entire world owes you a safe space to operate from. I love the offhand subtle threat of civil War by using the term genocide as a result of the cancellation. You sound exactly like Vladimir Putin who keeps threatening to go nuclear every time someone stands up to his aggression. What's it like to be a meat puppet for Russian bots?
This is what the "white shoe" firms did to Trump when he tried to contest election fraud. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/11/13/law-firm-porter-wright-withdraws-from-trump-campaign-pennsylvania-lawsuit-amid-pressure/
All's fair in Lawfare, apparently.
And Left Bank is just fine with that.
Can't have our white shoes sullied by those nutty Constitutionalists.
DD Driver.
True. Clement has been kicked out twice by Big Law.
Do we believe other clients are upset?
"Isn't this the second time Clement left a firm because it wanted him to fire an unpopular client?"
Yes, that's in the article:
"In 2011, Mr. Clement left King & Spalding LLP rather than drop his representation of House Republicans seeking to uphold the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied recognition to same-sex couples married under state law. In 2013, the Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional."
Seems as if “Team Normal” Republicans are getting bolder when it comes to distancing themselves from Team Nutter Republicans.
It’s the Yale in it, innit?
“It is as though you people believe that the entire world owes you a safe space to operate from.”
Who here said anything about being owed safe spaces? K & E have a perfect right to behave idiotically. It’s best for Clement and Murphy to understand the true cravenness of their partners. They’ll do better on their own.
“Team Normal” Republicans say "Screw your silly Constitutional Rights crap. There's money involved!"
The sequence of events implies that K&E was hoping to lose this case, or at least argue to a draw. Winning is the sin being punished. It reeks of GOPe swampiness. As if the “wrong” causes or clients do not deserve a zealous advocate. It’s within the pattern of woke DAs not really representing the people in favor of helping the defense counsel get a good deal for the defendant. How about those “norms” the Bulwark Lincoln lugs were crowing about?
It's as if we're not allowed to have any debate about so-called "Constitutional Rights." This one was about the second amendment, but these craven boot-lickers would soon enough abandon the rest of the Bill of Rights. And the Ingas of the world will cheer since free speech is only Team Nutter stuff anyway.
Is it “normal” to pack the Supreme Court or are you embracing your nutters, Inga?
Isn't it a little odd that, generally speaking, the people who like to own guns mostly want to be left alone, and the people who object to leaving them alone, go around spouting off about 'civil wars' and 'gun crime' and such? And not even intelligently, either.
Anyway it's always nice when the right choice presents itself with no alternatives. I hope the two lawyers continue to advance the legal profession as well as their careers. Any law firm that would let lawyers go because they won their case in the US Supreme Court, making the popular kids unhappy, is the kind of law firm you might call 'dinosaur'.
The actions of Kirland and Ellis are disgusting and repugnant. They clearly believe that not all persons deserve representation and they thus endorse the position/actions of the clients they do represent. As they have represented terrorists and criminals in the past, the conclusion must be that they endorse terrorism and crime. This makes them unsuitable to be members of the bar and practice law.
"Red State" legislatures should pass laws banning Kirkland and Ellis from practicing law in their states.
Every lawyer receiving a ticket/license to practice law must take an oath to his/her state constitution and to the US Constitution. You know the one that has the 2A in it.
When a company, or any organization, starts getting rid of winners, the downhill slide starts.
Best comment I read on the "liberal" Hive's reaction was on Instapundit: You have to wonder what they're planning to do to you given their anxiety to disarm you. (And if that sounds paranoid--as if there is such a thing as paranoia when dealing with statists--Google "Democide.")
So much for the constitutional right to legal representation. Not at this law firm. Good luck to the two lawyers in their future cases. They appear to stand for constitutional principles.
Kirkland and Ellis are free to represent whoever they want, but it is sad day when a law firm bends the knee to politics in this fashion. The defendants in the January 6th protests have had a difficult time getting representation in their cases, too, and no doubt that is due to political pressure, too. The right thing to do would have been to tell the partners, associates, and other clients, who disliked the firm being associated with this case, that they were free to leave any time they desired. However, money does sometimes make moral cowards of people, maybe most times.
The same thing happened to lawyers who tried to represent Trump in his suits on the 2020 election fraud. One was threatened along with her children.
"Seems as if “Team Loser” Republicans are getting bolder when it comes to distancing themselves from Team Liberty Republicans"
FIFY Inga. You're welcome.
Kirkland and Ellis following the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
Howard said...
"What's it like to be a meat puppet for Russian bots?"
Thinking of changing sides? I can't complain, Putin's bots treat a man right. But I'm not sure you have what it takes to comment for the Russkis. Frankly, Howard, their standards are fairly high. You have your moments -- you're no Igna -- but a lot of the time I think you're just phoning it in. Stick with Soros, he has money to burn and no standards whatsoever.
Progressives are strongly opposed to bullying - except when they are the bullies.
boatbuilder said...
Kirkland and Ellis following the Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules.
Not really.
They've told everyone with gold on the Right to avoid them, while not giving those on the Left any reason to go with them rather than someone else.
Worst of both worlds
Howard said...
Everyone loves the free market until their sacred cow gets gored.
So, Howard, you live it when criminal defendants can't get representation?
Or do you think that rapists are good people who deserve representation, but Republicans and gun owners are not?
"Everyone is entitled to legal representation" is a singular sacred cow. Is it stupidity, or just pure evil, that makes you want to kill it?
Dem lawyers favor defending Islamic terrorists who’ve committed mass murder.
Left Bank of the Charles said...
But, if we accept that it was the firm’s big business clients who precipitated the expulsion of the two partners, that suggests that a rift is developing between pro-business Republicans and pro-nutter Republicans.
Where you been, Leftie?
Have you not been watching DeSantis vs Disney?
There is a BIG rift between actual Republicans, and woke business suckups.
And woke business is the one who's going to get screwed.
Because the Dems will never be their friends, and will always be willing to throw them to the wolves.
Now we are going to be willing, too
King & Spalding did fine after Clement, and so did LGBT rights. Kirkland and gun control will do likewise.
Readering said...
King & Spalding did fine after Clement, and so did LGBT rights. Kirkland and gun control will do likewise.
So, it's good to know that Readering claims that it is perfectly fine to hold a layers clients against the lawyer and / or his law firm.
Which is to say, anyone who defends Islamic terrorists is properly slammed as a terrorist himself.
We will remember that when it's someone YOU want to get a defense who's in the news
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