Congress retained King & Spalding to “defend” the Defense of Marriage Act.  It did so because the Attorney General wouldn’t defend the law, and it would be wrong to have a law passed by Congress, no matter how incredibly wrong, be held unconstitutional without anyone arguing to the contrary.

They turned to King & Spalding because Paul Clement, former Solicitor General, was there.  But K&S started catching flack for it, and decided to bail.  It was bad for business to do something unpopular, so they moved to be relieved.

Paul Clement was faced with a choice.  He did the principled thing.  He resigned.

 I resign out of the firmly-held belief that a representation should not be abandoned because the client’s legal position is extremely unpopular in certain quarters. Defending unpopular positions is what lawyers do. The adversary system of justice depends on it, especially in cases where the passions run high. Efforts to delegitimize any representation for one side of a legal controversy are a profound threat to the rule of law. Much has been said about being on the wrong side of history. But being on the right or wrong side of history on the merits is a question for the clients. When it comes to the lawyers, the surest way to be on the wrong side of history is to abandon a client in the face of hostile criticism.

As I searched for professional guidance on how to proceed, I found wisdom in the place you and I both would have expected to find it: from our former partner, Judge Griffin Bell, in a 2002 commencement speech to his alma mater, Mercer Law School. “You are not required to take every matter that is presented to you, but having assumed a representation, it becomes your duty to finish the representation. Sometimes you will make a bad bargain, but as professionals, you are still obligated to carry out the representation.”

I hereby proclaim former United States Solicitor General Paul Clement an honorary criminal defense lawyer.  He’s got balls.

And so you know, Clement left K&S and got a new gig at Bancroft PLLC about 37 seconds later, proving that the job market is much, much better for lawyers with guts.  It helps to be a former solicitor general and that the new firm was started by fellow Bush administration DOJ alumnus, Viet Dinh, but still, Clement has balls.