Roberta Ann Kaplan (born 1966) is an American lawyer focusing on commercial litigation and public interest matters. Kaplan successfully argued before the
Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, ...
activist
Edith Windsor
Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain; June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017) was an American LGBT rights activist and a technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case ''United States v. ...
, in ''
United States v. Windsor
''United States v. Windsor'', 570 U.S. 744 (2013), is a landmark United States Supreme Court civil rights case concerning same-sex marriage. The Court held that Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied federal recognition o ...
'', a landmark decision that invalidated a section of the 1996
Defense of Marriage Act
The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) was a United States federal law passed by the 104th United States Congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It banned federal recognition of same-sex marriage by limiting the definition of marr ...
and required the federal government to recognize
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...
s. She was a partner at
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP (known as Paul, Weiss) is an American multinational law firm headquartered on Sixth Avenue in New York City. By profits per equity partner, it is the fifth most profitable law firm in the world.
...
before starting her own firm in 2017. In 2018, she co-founded the
Time's Up Legal Defense Fund
TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund is an organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that provides legal and media support to individuals who have been subject to workplace sexual harassment. The Fund is housed and administered by the National Women ...
.
Early life and education
A native of
Cleveland, Ohio, Roberta Kaplan grew up in a Jewish household.
She graduated from
Hawken School
Hawken School is an independent, coeducational, college preparatory day school in Northeast Ohio.
Hawken currently has two main campuses, the Lower and Middle Schools in Lyndhurst and the Upper School in Chester Township, plus a third, an urb ...
in
Gates Mills, Ohio
Gates Mills is a village in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. The population was 2,270 at the 2010 census. Gates Mills is a suburb of Cleveland and was originally part of Mayfield Township.
The village was named for Halsey Gates, the propri ...
, in 1984. LGBT scholar and activist
Aaron Belkin was Kaplan's high school friend and prom date.
She earned an B.A. in Russian history and literature from
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
in 1988. While in college she spent a semester abroad in Moscow and "discovered a passion for political activism when she became active in the movement to free Soviet Jewry".
She received her
J.D. from
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School (Columbia Law or CLS) is the law school of Columbia University, a private Ivy League university in New York City. Columbia Law is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious law schools in the world and has always ranked i ...
in 1991.
Career
Kaplan served as a
law clerk for
Mark L. Wolf of the
U.S. District Court in Massachusetts. While clerking for
Judith Kaye
Judith Ann Kaye ( Smith; August 4, 1938 – January 7, 2016) was an American lawyer, jurist and the longtime Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, serving in that position from March 23, 1993, until December 31, 2008.
She was the fir ...
, of the
New York Court of Appeals, she assisted Kaye with a number of academic articles. Kaplan's scholarly articles include "Proof versus Prejudice" (2013).
Kaplan joined Paul Weiss in 1996 and was made partner in 1999. She has served on the board and as chair of the board of the
Gay Men's Health Crisis
The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected."
His ...
, which created the Roberta Kaplan Legal Center to provide free legal services.
In July 2017, Kaplan founded Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, a law firm dedicated to commercial litigation and public interest matters.
''United States v. Windsor''
In 2009, Kaplan agreed to represent
Edith Windsor
Edith "Edie" Windsor (née Schlain; June 20, 1929 – September 12, 2017) was an American LGBT rights activist and a technology manager at IBM. She was the lead plaintiff in the 2013 Supreme Court of the United States case ''United States v. ...
pro bono. Windsor's wife, Thea Spyer, had died two years after they wed in Canada, leaving Windsor her sole heir. Because their marriage was not recognized under existing U. S. federal law, Windsor received an estate tax bill of $363,053.
Windsor went to gay rights advocates seeking redress, but could find no one to take her case. 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.
On June 26, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 5–4 decision declaring Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional. Subsequent to ''Windsor'', the Supreme Court ruling in ''
Obergefell v. Hodges
''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protect ...
'' (2015) struck down all remaining state and federal laws against same-sex marriage across the United States. Kaplan wrote about ''United States v. Windsor'' in the book ''Then Comes Marriage''.
''Sines v. Kessler''
In 2017, Kaplan and co-counsel Karen Dunn filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of students, clergy members and local residents against 15 individual defendants and associated groups for damages following alleged injuries sustained at the 2017
Unite the Right rally
The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Marchers included members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, ...
in
Charlottesville, Virginia.
The lawsuit is based on the
Ku Klux Klan Act
The Enforcement Act of 1871 (), also known as the Ku Klux Klan Act, Third Enforcement Act, Third Ku Klux Klan Act, Civil Rights Act of 1871, or Force Act of 1871, is an Act of the United States Congress which empowered the President to suspend ...
and according to ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', the defendants are "an array of neo-Nazis, white identitarians and old-line pro-Confederates."
Time's Up
In 2018, Kaplan co-founded the
Time's Up Legal Defense Fund
TIME'S UP Legal Defense Fund is an organization headquartered in Washington, DC, that provides legal and media support to individuals who have been subject to workplace sexual harassment. The Fund is housed and administered by the National Women ...
with
Tina Tchen
Christina M. Tchen (born January 25, 1956) is an American lawyer and a former official in the President Barack Obama Administration. She was CEO of Time's Up from 2019 to 2021, when she resigned following allegations that she provided legal ai ...
.
The fund has raised more than $24 million to provide legal defense for sexual violence victims, especially those who experienced misconduct in the workplace and led 780 attorneys and 50 cases under way.
In 2019, Kaplan and Tchen later co-founded HABIT, an anti-sexual harassment advisory.
On August 9, 2021, Kaplan resigned from her role as chairwoman of Time's Up, after she was named in the report released on August 3, 2021, by
New York Attorney General
The attorney general of New York is the chief legal officer of the U.S. state of New York and head of the Department of Law of the state government. The office has been in existence in some form since 1626, under the Dutch colonial government o ...
Letitia James that followed the investigation of
sexual harassment allegations against New York Governor Andrew Cuomo,
and after an open letter from a group of former Time's Up staffers and clients to the board of Time's Up was published.
The report alleged Kaplan was involved in an effort to discredit a woman who had accused Cuomo of sexual harassment.
E. Jean Carroll defamation lawsuit
Kaplan represents writer
E. Jean Carroll
Elizabeth Jean Carroll is an American journalist, author, and advice columnist. Her "Ask E. Jean" column appeared in ''Elle'' magazine from 1993 through 2019, becoming one of the longest-running advice columns in American publishing.
In her 20 ...
, who filed a
defamation lawsuit against Trump on November 4, 2019. According to ''The Washington Post'', Kaplan claimed "she intends to prove that Trump acted with '
malice,' meaning that he knew his statements were false or showed reckless disregard for the truth."
The lawsuit was moved from state to federal court when the US Department of Justice moved to take over Trump's defense (a motion that was denied in October 2020).
Kaplan said she welcomed pursuing the lawsuit in federal court.
Although the Department of Justice appealed that decision, Kaplan told reporters, "we are confident that the Second Circuit will affirm the District Court’s comprehensive and well-reasoned opinion."
''Mary Trump v. Donald Trump et al.''
On September 24, 2020, Kaplan and her firm filed a lawsuit with the
New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, on behalf of plaintiff
Mary L. Trump, accusing President
Donald J. Trump and his siblings,
Maryanne Trump Barry
Maryanne Trump Barry (born April 5, 1937) is an American attorney and a retired United States federal judge. She became an Assistant United States Attorney in 1974, and was first appointed to the United States District Court for the District o ...
and
Robert Trump
Robert Stewart Trump (August 26, 1948 – August 15, 2020) was an American businessman and investor. He was the younger brother of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Early life and education
Robert Trump was born in Queens, New York City, on ...
, of decades of financial fraud and civil conspiracy.
Works
* Roberta A. Kaplan, with Lisa Dickey. ''Then Comes Marriage: United States v. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA''. New York: W. W. Norton, 2015.
Awards and recognition
*Forty Most Influential Lawyers under Forty, ''National Law Journal'' (2005)
*100 Most Influential Lawyers, ''Above The Law'' (2013)
*Litigator of the Year, ''American Lawyer'' (2013)
*National Public Service Award, Stanford University (2013)
*Honorary Doctorate, Johns Hopkins University (2014)
*Lifetime Achievement Award, ''New York Law Journal'' (2015)
* In June 2019, to mark the
50th anniversary of the
Stonewall riots, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modern
LGBTQ rights movement
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) movements are social movements that advocate for LGBT people in society. Some focus on equal rights, such as the ongoing movement for same-sex marriage, while others focus on liberation, as in the ...
, ''
Queerty'' named her one of the ''Pride50'' "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towards
equality
Equality may refer to:
Society
* Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing
** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...
, acceptance and dignity for all
queer people".
* 2019 recipient of
Gay Men's Health Crisis
The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected."
His ...
Joan H. Tisch Award for Community Service and Philanthropy
*
Crain's 2019 Most Powerful Women in New York
Personal life
Kaplan is openly gay. In September 2005, Kaplan married her partner, Rachel Lavine, in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
.
Kaplan is Jewish.
References
External links
Website of Roberta A. KaplanProfile at website of law firm*
''The People's Brief'' (Human Rights Campaign, 2015)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, Roberta A
1966 births
Jewish American attorneys
American Jewish anti-racism activists
Living people
American LGBT rights activists
LGBT people from Ohio
Lesbian Jews
American women lawyers
Harvard University alumni
Columbia Law School alumni
Columbia Law School faculty
Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison people
Hawken School alumni
21st-century American Jews
21st-century American women
Activists from Ohio
LGBT lawyers