Law Firm Wins Case Against Court Ruling Not Allowing Defense to Asks Jurors If They Are Anti LGBT

This article is part of National Law Journal’s 2018 Pro Bono Hot List recognition package that celebrates law firms that do well by doing good. See the other stories here.

A Florida judge’s decision not to allow attorneys to question jurors about potential biases against LGBT individuals, in the midst of a trial between Raymond Berthiaume, who is gay, and the city of Key West sparked a precedent-setting appeals court battle.

A team from Akerman and LGBT advocates pushed back against the judge’s decision and took the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, arguing for basic civil rights that would be given to protected classes to ensure fair legal proceedings.

Berthiaume was entrenched in a battle with the city of Key West over allegations of excessive force, false arrest, and imprisonment. The Eleventh Circuit sided with him and granted a new trial.

Lambda Legal and the National LGBT Bar Association both hailed the victory as a major win for the LGBT community and as a precedent in favor of protections for LGBT individuals in legal disputes.

Akerman partner Whitney Untiedt, who serves as director of pro bono initiatives, said the case was an “obvious yes” to take as the firm has focused on serving the LGBT population in its pro bono work.

“Winning always feels good, but the main reason we took this case is because lawyers needed to stand up on behalf of this individual who was discriminated against in the jury selection process,” Untiedt said. “We wanted to stand up and say out loud that you can’t treat LGBT people any differently from anyone else.”

Berthiaume was represented on appeal by a team of attorneys with Akerman in Tallahassee, including Ryan O’Connor, Dale Noll, Katherine Giddings and Untiedt, along with trial lawyer Hugh Koerner, who has a law office in Hollywood, Florida. Akerman attorney Noll is the current president of the National LGBT Bar Association, which, along with other gay rights groups including Lambda Legal, filed friend-of-the-court briefs in the case.

Akerman has focused much of its pro bono work and advocacy on LGBT issues. It filed friend-of-the-court briefs in several cases, including a first-impression case that argues the Ninth Circuit should hold that transgender is a protected class, and wrote several briefs in courts surrounding the issue of whether transgender students should be able to use the bathroom of their gender preference. The firm also joined with Immigration Equality to represent gay and transgender immigrants seeking asylum protection in the United States.

In addition to this work, the firm successfully represented Ability Housing in a lawsuit stemming from Jacksonville, Florida’s refusal to permit the organization to purchase and restore a dilapidated building to create housing for disabled, homeless veterans. The city was required to pay $2 million in penalties, legal fees, and a grant to pay for housing for people with disabilities.