Once upon a time, I was a patent attorney. Yup, I sat in an office and wrote uber-fun stuff.  Good times really.  The firm that I worked for was based in Orange County, and is now the largest law firm in Orange County, Knobbe Martens Olson and Bear.

Why do I tell you about this on a political blog? Well, it’s not because I’m just getting some kicks about talking about my background, rather it’s because Knobbe attorneys also happen to be the largest donor of funds of any of the 200 largest law firms (as judged by the AmLaw 200).

While other major companies, like Google, Levi Strauss and PG&E are taking stands for equality, Knobbe  Martens is taking a stand for writing discrimination into our state constitution, and for affirmatively limiting the rights of a minority.

I should point out that many of the attorneys that I worked with at Knobbe were phenomenal people.  Extremely friendly and all that.  And, as far as I can tell, nobody from the San Francisco office has given any money to the Yes on 8 campaign, the money seems to come only from the mothership in Orange County and the smaller San Diego office.

However, the firm does have a sizable group of Mormon attorneys who are dedicated to ending my marriage, and thousands of lifelong commitments like mine.  Dedicated to the tune of over $25,000 in the third quarter alone.  You can find a chart of third quarter to Yes on 8 from Knobbe Martens attorneys here.  I’ve not taken the time to include spouses, but I did see a couple of them in the list. Further, it is possible I missed a few donations due to misspellings in the firm name on the Form 460.

So, if you are looking for an intellectual property attorney who shares your values of equality for all, I’d keep walking right past the Knobbe Martens offices in San Diego and Orange County.