Supreme Court gun decision creates chaos at the huge law firm that won the case: report

Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that struck down a New York gun law resulted in chaos inside the law firm that won the case.

"Discord over gun rights erupted within the law firm that secured Thursday’s Second Amendment victory at the Supreme Court, with Kirkland & Ellis LLP announcing shortly after the decision that it would no longer take firearms cases and that it was parting ways with the two star partners who won the case," The Wall Street Journalreported. "Following a Kirkland press release praising Paul Clement, a former U.S. solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration, and Erin Murphy, the two announced they were opening their own firm."

Kirkland & Ellis has over 3,000 attorneys.

“Unfortunately, we were given a stark choice: either withdraw from ongoing representations or withdraw from the firm,” Clement said. “Anyone who knows us and our views regarding professional responsibility and client loyalty knows there was only one course open to us: We could not abandon ongoing representations just because a client’s position is unpopular in some circles.”

New York officials have been harshly critical of the ruling.

"Mr. Clement and Ms. Murphy, both former law clerks at the Supreme Court, have worked together for years at a series of different firms, representing business clients and bringing test cases to advance conservative legal objectives. Their new firm, to be based in Washington, will be called Clement & Murphy, they said. It wasn’t the first time Mr. Clement has quit a corporate law firm that grew uncomfortable with the conservative causes he has represented. In 2011, Mr. Clement left King & Spalding LLP rather than drop his representation of House Republicans seeking to uphold the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denied recognition to same-sex couples married under state law," the newspaper reported. "In 2013, the Supreme Court found the statute unconstitutional."

Read the full report.