BITING THE BULLET

Star Lawyer Exits Firm as It Drops Gun Rights Cases Hours After Supreme Court Win

Paul Clement, a former solicitor general in the Bush administration, said he would start a boutique law firm.

Hours after winning a major Second Amendment case on behalf of a National Rifle Association ally at the Supreme Court on Thursday, former Solicitor General Paul Clement announced his sudden departure from his law firm. The reason? Kirkland & Ellis, Clement’s firm, had issued a news release proclaiming that it would “no longer represent clients with respect to matters involving the interpretation of the Second Amendment.” Clement and Erin Murphy, another top Kirkland attorney, said in a statement that they “do not take this step lightly,” but “unfortunately, we were given a stark choice: either withdraw from ongoing representations or withdraw from the firm.” Out of a purported loyalty to their longtime gun-affiliated clients, whom they said they could not abandon just because of positions “unpopular in some circles,” the pair said they would be establishing an appellate boutique firm. The case resolved 6-3 by the Supreme Court on Thursday struck down New York’s law limiting concealed-carry permits.