Update from the Marriage Equality Front Lines

  5:30-6 p.m. • Registration
  6-7 p.m. • Presentation and Q&A
  7-8 p.m. • Networking Reception

  On April 28, Doug Hallward-Driemeier, chair of Ropes & Gray's Appellate and Supreme Court practice, argued before the Supreme Court in favor of same-sex couples’ constitutional right to recognition of their marriages.

Challenges to bans on marriage between couples of the same sex have been working their way through the courts throughout the country. In 37 states — plus Washington, D.C., and St. Louis, Missouri — lesbian and gay couples are now free to marry.

Doug presented arguments that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to recognize a marriage between two people of the same sex when their marriage was lawfully licensed and performed out-of-state. Co-counsel Mary L. Bonauto, Civil Rights Project Director at Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) presented arguments that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license the marriage of two persons of the same sex.

Please join Doug in San Francisco for an update from the front lines following these historic proceedings.

 Click here to access a recent Advocate.com article that provides commentary on the Supreme Court arguments.

Douglas Hallward-Driemeier

Doug has presented more than 50 appellate arguments, including before the U.S. Supreme Court and every federal circuit court of appeals. He has briefed and argued both civil and criminal matters covering a wide range of subjects and has particular experience in the areas of intellectual property, bankruptcy, the False Claims Act, securities litigation, and antitrust.

Doug rejoined Ropes & Gray in 2010 after spending more than a decade handling civil appeals and Supreme Court litigation for the U.S. Department of Justice, including five years as an assistant to the solicitor general. Doug has argued fifteen cases before the Supreme Court and filed more than 150 briefs in that Court.

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