Clement Signs New DOMA Contract

On the same day that Paul Clement tendered his resignation at King and Spalding, the former U.S. solicitor general tapped by House leadership to defend the Defense of Marriage Act signed a new contract to continue the litigation with his new firm, Bancroft PLLC.

According to the April 25 contract, released Monday, Clement, who left King and Spalding after the firm decided to withdraw its involvement in the litigation, will be tasked with conducting DOMA defense along with two fellow attorneys at Bancroft, a small, conservative firm in Washington, D.C., whose partners include Viet D. Dinh, who was an assistant U.S. attorney general from 2001 to 2003.

The contract is similar in form to that signed by Clement on behalf of King and Spalding, whose firm chairman said in a statement last week that a vetting process for taking the case had been “inadequate.” It includes provisions prohibiting firm employees from advocacy that would “alter or amend the Defense of Marriage Act.”

The hourly rate of $520 for legal work remains the same. A “cap” of $500,000 for legal services — one derided as misleading and well below the overall amount needed to mount an adequate legal defense in the current challenges to DOMA — also remains in the contract.

The contract was signed April 25 by Clement as well as Committee on House Administration chairman Daniel E. Lundgren and House general counsel Kerry W. Kircher.

Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, said his office and the Committee on House Administration did not receive the week-old contract until today.