HRC Campaigning to Inform Clients, Recruits that King & Spalding Defends Discrimination

By Charlie Joughin -

As we previously posted, the law firm hired by the Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives are being paid $520 an hour of tax payer dollars to defend the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in court.  HRC will be campaigning to educate clients and potential recruits about King & Spalding’s decision to voluntarily take up the legal defense of DOMA and the harm it will have on LGBT families across the country.
HRC’s campaign will consist of the following components:

• Ads in mainstream and legal publications entitled “Shame” that feature the stories of families affected by discriminatory law.
• Informational letters to the firm’s clients and organizations to which they have made charitable contributions informing them of K&S’s decision to promote discrimination.
• Informational letters to the nation’s top law schools informing them of K&S’s decision to promote discrimination.
• Organizing law students to convey their feelings to K&S.
• Email and Twitter campaign among HRC’s members and supporters, more than one million supporters of equal rights.
• Reconsideration of the firm’s Corporate Equality Index score if its decision to take this case remains unchanged.  Presently, the company receives a 95% which it markets quite proudly as part of its diversity story.

DOMA denies over 1,000 rights and benefits to legally married same-sex couples, including social security survivor benefits, health care for spouses of government employees, or even the ability for spouses to be buried together in veteran’s cemeteries.  Additionally, same-sex couples do not receive any tax benefits from the ability to file jointly and aren’t exempt as other spouses are from rules that require you to sell off assets, including your own home, in order to qualify for federal assistance programs in times of grave illness.
Outraged that $520/hour’s worth of your tax dollars will be spent defending discrimination?  Tweet King & Spalding (@kslaw) about it!

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