Opinion

Cowardly counsel

One of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious law firms has just given prospective lawyers everywhere — to say nothing of the nation at large — a disheartening demonstration of cowardice.

Atlanta-based King & Spaulding yesterday abruptly abandoned its commitment to defend the Defense of Marriage Act after a campaign of intimidation and backlash threats by gay activists.

The firm was hired by House Republicans to defend the 1996 law — which was signed into law by President Bill Clinton and defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman — after the Obama administration announced it would no longer do so.

But from the moment that decision was announced, homosexual activists launched an effort to bludgeon the firm into reversing itself, including undermining its ability to recruit top law students and going after other K&S clients.

As Richard Socarides, the Clinton White House’s liaison to gay groups, gleefully noted: “This could have gotten very ugly for them. This kind of thing could have stuck to them for decades.”

Hence, the bug-out.

K&S Chairman Robert Hays yesterday said the firm had moved in court to withdraw its representation, citing unspecified problems in “the process used for vetting this engagement.” He refused to offer any further explanation.

But no explanation was necessary.

Certainly the issue was clear to the senior partner who’d been handling the case for the firm — former US Solicitor General Paul Clement, who abruptly quit.

“A representation should not be abandoned because the client’s legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters,” he wrote to Hays. “Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do.”

Not surprisingly, activists were quick to hail K&S’ decision to turn tail, saying the firm was now “on the right side of history.”

But Clement anticipated that response: “When it comes to lawyers,” he wrote, “the surest way to be on the wrong side of history is to abandon a client in the face of hostile criticism.”

Indeed, he quoted the late Attorney General Griffin Bell — one of K&S’ longtime senior partners — as having once told his law school alma mater: “You are not required to take every matter that is presented to you. But having assumed a responsibility, it becomes your duty to finish the representation.”

Ironically, K&S had no problem with two of its partners representing a half-dozen Gitmo-detained terrorists — pro bono, no less.

So the next time those on the left preach about a lawyer’s moral and ethical responsibility when it comes to defending America-hating terrorists, remind them of King & Spaulding’s craven surrender to political correctness.