October 1, 2008 2:58 PM

Howard Rice Wins Same-Sex Child Custody Case

Posted by Andrew Longstreth

When it comes to supporting gay rights in the courtroom, few firms can match the accomplishments of San Francisco's Howard Rice Nemerovski Canady Falk & Rabkin. For the last few years, it has been representing the City of San Francisco in same-sex marriage litigation, which ultimately resulted in the landmark California Supreme Court ruling that struck down the state's ban on same-sex marriage. And now the firm has won another important victory for the cause of gay rights, this time in the area of child custody.

On Tuesday, in a case of first impression, a Missoula, Montana, state court judge granted Michelle Kulstad joint-custody rights to two children she adopted with her former partner, Barbara Maniaci. When the two were a couple, they adopted Liam (now 8) and Nani (now 4). Because Montana law does not allow two parents in a same-sex relationship to adopt a child, Maniaci officially adopted both children, but Klustad shared parental duties.

After the couple split up in 2007, Maniaci married a man and sought to exclude Kulstad from seeing the children. Eventually the ACLU became involved on Kulstad's behalf and brought in Howard Rice partner Kevin Lewis, who tried the case over two days in May with Missoula attorney Susan Ridgeway.

In ruling for Kulstad, Judge Ed McLean employed stinging language. "To discriminate further against Ms. Kulstad because of her sexual preference in this day and age," he wrote, "is no different than telling a person to go to the back of the bus because of her skin color."   

Lewis told us that this case, which he anticipates will be appealed to Montana Supreme Court, is one of several across the country in which expert witnesses have claimed that research shows gay couples are unfit to be parents. "This court rejected that theory," said Lewis.

We called the Alliance Defense Fund, a conservative Christian nonprofit organization that represented Maniaci, but haven't heard back yet.

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