Bancroft litigation group of Washington joins Kirkland & Ellis

By Anthony Lin
Reuters

Sept 12 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement and the 16 other lawyers of the Washington litigation boutique firm Bancroft are joining global law firm Kirkland & Ellis on Oct. 1.

Kirkland, which has 1,700 lawyers in a dozen offices around the world, announced the moves on Monday. The firm said Clement has argued more cases before the U.S. Supreme Court since 2000 than any other lawyer.

The group moving to Kirkland includes Bancroft founder Viet Dinh, who served as an assistant U.S. attorney general under President George W. Bush, and H. Christopher Bartolomucci, a former associate White House counsel to Bush.

Clement served under Bush first as principal deputy solicitor general and then solicitor general, chiefly responsible for representing the U.S. government before the supreme court. After leaving government in 2008, he joined the law firm King & Spalding as head of its appellate practice.

In 2011 Clement began representing the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives in a defense of the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. The firm faced harsh criticism from gay rights group and withdrew from the case a week after signing.

Clement moved to Bancroft to continue handling the DOMA case. Thought it also acts on commercial cases, the firm was best known for work on behalf of right-wing political causes.

Bancroft represented 26 states in their challenge to the U.S. Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Clement also argued the winning side when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Obamacare's contraceptive mandate. (Reporting by Anthony Lin; editing by Grant McCool)

09/12/2016 16:21