Roberta Kaplan

Roberta Kaplan

Roberta A. Kaplan (born September 29, 1966) is a partner in the Litigation Department of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and an adjunct professor of law at Columbia University Law School. In March of 2013 she successfully argued before the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of her client, Edith (Edie) Windsor, in Windsor v. United States. This resulted in a groundbreaking decision that invalidated a crucial section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Windsor has been cited in over 18 lower court decisions to date.

Early Life and Education

A native of Cleveland Ohio, Roberta (Robbie) Kaplan graduated from high school in 1984. In 1988 she earned an A.B. from Harvard University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1991. She clerked for Judge Mark Wolf of the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. While serving as a senior law clerk for Judge Judith Kaye, of the New York Court of Appeals, she assisted Judge Kaye with a number of articles, including "State Courts At the Dawn of a New Century: Common Law Courts Reading Statues and Constitutions,"

Legal Career

Kaplan joined Paul Weiss in 1996 and was made partner in 1999. Nicknamed a "pressure junkie" by her peers, she has extensive experience representing corporate clients such as Citibank, AIG, Fitch Ratings, Airbnb, and JP Morgan Chase in complex matters ranging from mortgage backed securities, structured finance transactions and credit rating opinions. Her success as a litigator earned her many accolades, including top rankings as one of Forty under Forty in the National Law Review and "100 Most Influential Lawyers" as well as a 2013 Lawyer of the Year and 2013 Litigator of the Year

Windsor

in 2009, Kaplan agreed to represent Edie Windsor pro bono. Windsor's wife, Thea Spyer, had died, leaving Windsor her sole heir. But because their marriage was not recognized under the existing federal law, Windsor received a tax bill of $363,053. Windsor went to gay rights advocates seeking redress, but could find no one to take her case. Finally, she was referred to Kaplan, who later recalled, "When I heard her story, it took me about five seconds, maybe less, to agree to represent her." Kaplan had been co-counsel on the unsuccessful bid for marriage equality in New York state in 2006, one of her many pro-bono projects. . In November of 2010, in conjunction with the American Civil Liberties Union, Kaplan and her team at Paul, Weiss filed suit in the U.S. District Court seeking a refund for Windsor. In February 2011, President Barack Obama's administration announced that they would not defend DOMA, stating they agreed with the plaintiff's position that the act was unconstitutional. As a result, the Speaker of the House John Boehner announced that Congress, acting through the Bipartisan Legal Authority Group (BLAG) was hiring Paul Clement to defend the constitutionality of DOMA.

In June 0f 2012, Judge Barbara S. Jones ruled that a rational basis review of Section 3 of DOMA showed it to be unconstitutional and ordered the federal government to return Windsor's money, with interest. This was a significant victory. In October, the U.S. Second Court of appeals affirmed this decision.

Paul Clement, a Washington D.C. veteran and with multiple experiences before the Supreme Court, acting for BLAG, appealed this decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. On March 27, 2013, the court heard oral arguments. It was Kaplan's first time before the U.S. Supreme Court. In a spirited exchange between Kaplan and Chief Justice John Roberts, Roberts alleged that politicians were "falling all over themselves" to support her case. Kaplan responded, "The fact of the matter is, Mr. Chief Justice, is that no other group in recent history has been subjected to popular referenda to take away rights that have already been given or exclude those rights, the way gay people have."

On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5-4 decision declaring Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional. Writing for the majority, Justice Anthony Kennedy said that withholding federal recognition of gay marriage puts gay couples in "an unstable position of being in a second-tier marriage," echoing the pithy description from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg referring to gay marriage under DOMA as "skim milk marriage."

Impact of Windsor

Only six months after the ruling, four more states had legalized gay marriage, and Windsor was "expressly invoked" to by a Utah federal court to "rule that the Constitution required finding a right to same-sex marriage" according to Richard Socorides in The New Yorker. The article goes on to quote Roberta Kaplan, in reference to "the expanding reach" of the Windsor decision, "It’s the logic and reasoning behind the Court’s decision—namely, that gay people deserve the same legal rights and protections as everyone else." A year after the decision was announced, the LA Times reported that "nineteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriage" and that pending cases are likely working their way up to the Supreme Court. Most recently, in July of 2014, a Kentucky judge who was a Bush appointee, rejected the a gay marriage-ban by stating that arguments against gay marriage were not those made by "serious people."

Personal Life

After the decision was announced, Kaplan, whose strategy during the legal fight was to remind herself and all involved that "It's all about Edie, stupid," announced publicly that she was gay. Kaplan is married to noted Democratic Party activist Rachel Lavine. The couple live in Manhattan with their son, Jacob.