Law Schools, Litigators, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

3 Lessons Learned From Litigating A Landmark Case

Paul, Weiss partner Roberta Kaplan reflects on the history-making case of United States v. Windsor.

onMay 16, 2017 at 7:42 PMMay 16, 2017 at 4:14 PM

Edie Windsor and Roberta Kaplan (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty)

What do Roberta Kaplan, the longtime Paul, Weiss partner and Above the Law’s 2013 Lawyer of the Year, and J. Michael Luttig, the Fourth Circuit judge turned Boeing general counsel, share in common?

Not a lot, you might think. Kaplan, a leading liberal litigator, is most famous for winning the Supreme Court case of United States v. Windsor, a landmark LGBT rights ruling. Judge Luttig, in contrast, was for many years a top conservative contender to sit on the high court (and is now reportedly under consideration to serve as FBI director).

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Well, here’s your answer: they both spoke at law school graduations this year, and in their remarks, they both stressed the importance of the rule of law. In her commencement address at Pace Law School, Robbie Kaplan even gave Judge Luttig (and Above the Law) a nice shout-out:

This sense of inherent dignity that animates the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence in Windsor and Obergefell is not necessarily limited to people. Like my client Edie Windsor, principles and institutions like the United States Constitution, the Rule of Law, and the Presidency itself have their own sense of dignity. Those of you who read the Above the Law blog may have seen a post about a speech former Fourth Circuit Judge Michael Luttig gave at the graduation of the University of South Carolina law school earlier this month. In that speech, Judge Luttig proclaimed that “we in the legal profession are the stewards and guardians of the Rule of Law – the foundation of civilized society and the guarantor of liberty. If this sounds as if the lawyer holds a special place in the constitutional order that is our democracy and that we are weighted by an almost-sacred responsibility, it is because we do and we are.”

In these polarized times, it’s nice to see two legal luminaries from opposite sides of the aisle stressing the importance of the rule of law (even if they might disagree on whether specific actions — such as President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey, discussed by Kaplan in her speech — are consistent with the rule of law).

This is just one highlight from Robbie Kaplan’s moving and thoughtful speech, in which she shares three lessons she learned from litigating the Windsor case. Flip to the next page to read her remarks in full (and if you haven’t read it already, check out her wonderful memoir, Then Comes Marriage (affiliate link)).