Lieff Cabraser Joins Over Three Hundred And Seventy Businesses In Support Of Marriage Equality

Lieff Cabraser today joined 378 businesses to ask the United States Supreme Court to strike down state law bans on same-sex marriage in connection with the pending case, Obergefell v. Hodges. Lieff Cabraser is part of a broad coalition of employers that includes Aetna, Alcoa, Amazon, American Airlines, Apple, Bain & Company, Blackrock, Cisco, ConAgra Foods, CVS, Deutsche Bank, Dow Chemical, General Electric, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Hilton, Johnson & Johnson, The New England Patriots, Marriott, Microsoft, MillerCoors, Moody’s, Morgan Stanley, Pepsi, Pfizer, The San Francisco Giants, Target, Viacom, Walt Disney, and Wells Fargo, among many others.

The employer brief criticizes the patchwork of inconsistent state laws on same-sex marriage as unfair, unwieldy, unworkable and costly to administer for businesses with offices in jurisdictions with divergent rules. Lieff Cabraser has offices in California and New York, where marriage between same-sex couples is legally available, and in Tennessee, where it is not.

Commenting on the firm’s participation in the case, Kelly M. Dermody, the managing partner of Lieff Cabraser’s San Francisco office, stated, "Our firm recognizes that it is illogical and unfair that we are compelled by Tennessee law to institutionalize discrimination for our own employees in Tennessee even as they fight for justice for our firm's clients every day. We proudly join the other 378 employers -- often adversaries in our cases, but united on this issue -- to seek equality under the law for all marriages."

Lieff Cabraser previously participated as an amicus party in the similar employer brief filed in the 2013 landmark United States Supreme Court case, United States v. Windsor (the challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act), and served as amici counsel in connection with the 2013 United States Supreme Court case challenging California’s Proposition 8, Perry v. Hollingsworth.

The employer group that filed today's brief is represented by attorneys from the law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.