Metro Weekly

New DOMA Defense Contract Released

Today, Metro Weekly received the new contract signed by House General Counsel Kerry Kircher and attorney Paul Clement, on behalf of his new firm — Bancroft PLLC — for its representation of the House Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group in defense of Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act in ongoing challenges to the law.

The contract was signed by all parties, including House Administration Committee Chairman Dan Lungren (R-Calif.),on April 25 — the same day that King & Spalding had announced that it was seeking to withdraw from the representation and that Clement resigned from King & Spalding to work at Bancroft.

Drew Hammill, spokesman for Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), told Metro Weekly, “This contract was not shared with Committee on House Administration Democrats before it was signed. Leader Pelosi has not received any response from her April 18 and April 20 letters to Speaker [John] Boehner [(R-Ohio)] pressing for additional details about the transparency, cost and ethics surrounding his decision to hire outside counsel to defend discrimination.”

As Metro Weekly was told on April 25 by a Boehner spokesman, the contract terms appear to be the same as in the King & Spalding contract.

Read the contract: BancroftContract.pdf

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