Was Coca-Cola Behind King & Spaulding's Change ot Heart on DOMA?

The speculation continues as to what prompted King & Spaulding to withdraw from the defense of DOMA. While the unhinged Christianists like racists loving Tony Perkins at Family Research Council lament that King & Spaulding was "bullied" by gay rights organizations into dropping "the most high-profile client on its books: the U.S. House of Representatives," the real truth may be that it was the business community that prompted the law firm's sudden withdrawal. Specifically, it may be Coca-Cola among other that "opened King & Spaulding" to its disastrous decision to defend bigotry. Talking Points Memo looks at the situation. Here are highlights:
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When the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding announced on April 18 that it would represent the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and defend the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, it apparently didn't realize what a mess it had made for itself.
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Exactly one week later, the firm reversed its decision, prompting a high-profile partner -- former Solicitor General Paul Clement -- to resign publicly, and House Speaker John Boehner's staff to issue a statement criticizing the firm for "its careless disregard for its responsibilities to the House in this constitutional matter."
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As public relations debacles go, this was a doozy. But the firm must have calculated that the alternative would have been worse. In the intervening week, a series of public and behind-the-scenes developments made it clear that the firm would suffer recriminations for defending what many of its top clients and future recruits -- not to mention gay rights advocates -- consider to be an anti-gay law.
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Sources with knowledge of the backlash confirm that one of King & Spalding's top clients, Coca Cola, also based in Atlanta, directly intervened to press the firm to extricate itself from the case.
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Other King & Spalding clients likewise conveyed to the firm that its decision to take the DOMA case could cause them problems, both internally and with customers, according to sources who spoke with TPM. It also faced its own internal backlash.
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Other high-powered law firms in New York and Washington, D.C., wanted nothing to do with the case from the outset. King & Spalding will still pay some price for its original misstep -- and they'll definitely have to swat away gnats in the conservative movement. But it's likely a smaller price than they would have paid if they hadn't cut bait so quickly.
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Clement will now take up the case as a partner for Bancroft, LLP -- "a boutique firm made up of former Bush administration lawyers," as one LGBT advocate familiar with the pressure put on King & Spalding described it. It will thus be largely immune from public blowback.
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Additional discussion of the King & Spaulding about face and the law firm's motivations can be found here.