Andrew Wolfson

The Courier-Journal

One of the adversaries describes herself on her resume as a "passionate advocate for clients who have been the victims of bigotry, ignorance and the abuse of power."

And she says she is fighting in part for her "favorite aunts," a lesbian couple she says "deserve what everybody else has."

The other is a professional litigator who is arguing the case only because her firm was hired after Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway refused to do so.

She declines to reveal her views on gay rights, saying they have no bearing on the case.

Laura Landenwich, 34, of Louisville, and Leigh Gross Latherow, 45, of Ashland, will square off Wednesday in arguments at the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, where each will have 15 minutes to make her case on gay marriage.

Both lawyers are highly regarded: Latherow, who practices in Ashland's largest and oldest firm, has been twice named as a "Super Lawyer" by a popular lawyer rating service, while the same group has identified Landenwich as a "rising star."

Both are married and have children.

But while Landenwich is an outspoken champion for civil rights, Latherow's practice is focused largely on defending corporations. And while she has volunteered at a homeless shelter and served on the boards of Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the United Way, she is not known for taking on political causes.

"She is definitely not an ideologue," said Senior U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood, for whom she served as a law clerk.

In her previous biggest case, she defended a manufacturer's right to fire a man three weeks after his fiancée filed a gender-bias case against the company. She claimed only the employee who files a complaint is protected against retaliation. She won at the 6th Circuit but lost 8-0 at the U.S. Supreme Court, where she argued the case.

Latherow has practiced for three times as long as Landenwich, and argued five times before the 6th Circuit, compared to only once for Landenwich.

But Latherow has the heavier burden: She must persuade the 6th Circuit panel's three judges to reverse Senior Judge John G. Heyburn II's rulings that threw out Kentucky's gay marriage ban. And she is swimming against a tide of state and federal court rulings in favor of same-sex marriage.

Here is a closer look at both lawyers:

Landenwich

Current and former colleagues say Landenwich, a concert pianist who graduated from Louisville's Youth Performing Arts School, thinks quickly on her feet and benefits in the courtroom from her experience as a performer.

"She doesn't talk 'lawyer' or in constitutional riddles," said Paul Hershberg, a partner at Seiller Waterman, where Landenwich landed her first job after law school.

"She is good at conveying the absurdity of the other side's position when that is warranted — and in this case it is warranted," Hershberg said.

Landenwich was elected to argue the case by five lawyers at two firms who have represented the plaintiffs, although she had to make a deal with one of them, Dan Canon, to get it.

"I had to agree that if our case gets to the Supreme Court, he can argue it there," she said.

Once registered as a Republican — she admits she used to listen to Rush Limbaugh — Landenwich has turned to the left.

"She is a true liberal but not a bleeding heart," said Ted Walton, one of her partners.

In her prior trip to the 6th Circuit, she argued what she describes as a "horrific" jail case in which her client, a 36-year-old woman, "was left to rot" without medical treatment in the Christian County Jail, then died at a local hospital.

The case was settled before the court issued a ruling — the county paid $95,000 — but Landenwich said she likes to think she would have won.

Though she usually represents plaintiffs, with partner Thomas Clay, she successfully defended an optometry clinic accused of sexual harassment and won an $890,000 jury verdict against the plaintiff, an office manager, for embezzlement.

She recently won attention when she filed a potential class action lawsuit on behalf of four people who allege the Floyd County (Ind.) Jail violated their constitutional rights by strip searching them after their arrests.

She and her co-counsels — Canon, Shannon Fauver, Dawn Elliot and L. Joe Dunman — so far have worked without pay but will seek court-awarded fees if they prevail.

Landenwich, whose father is a comptroller and whose mother is a counselor at the Brown School, lives in a 114-year-old house in Clifton with her husband, Dr. Andrei Moldoveanu, a dentist, and their children, who are 3 and 5.

In addition to piano, she teaches a class, "Legal issues in the music industry," at Indiana University Southeast, her alma mater, and plays beach volleyball at Baxter Jack's.

She said she has received "nothing but support" since taking on the case and no hate mail.

She said she expects to be nervous Wednesday but to enjoy the experience more than the last time she appeared at the court, when she was pregnant and suffering from morning sickness.

"I know it can't be that bad," she said.

Latherow

Lawyers and judges in Boyd County say that Latherow is always well-prepared and won't bring any personal bias to her argument.

"She will just do her job," said Chief Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman. "She's a professional."

Ashland native Dustin Meek, who practices in Louisville and has litigated cases involving Latherow, said she is "smart, resourceful and reliable."

Ashland lawyers say she's never been involved in social issues. And Hagerman said, "I've never known her to be in politics — and I think I would know, because I'm in it."

A registered Democrat, she has given two $1,000 contributions to Gov. Steve Beshear, and one in the same amount to Andrew Beshear, his son, a Democratic candidate for attorney general.

Her firm — whose 11 lawyers and their spouses gave $15,750 to Beshear's 2011 re-election campaign and $9,000 so far to Andy Beshear's campaign — was awarded a renewable $100,000 contract by the governor to defend Kentucky's gay marriage ban after Conway said he wouldn't defend the law. It was paid $68,000 through May.

Latherow has since been whipsawed by both sides in the debate.

Martin Cothran, an analyst for the Family Foundation of Kentucky, complained after Beshear passed over attorneys with a history of opposing gay rights that "we would just like to see someone in this case who is actually in favor of the law."

And Latherow's argument that the same-sex marriage ban is justified to maintain the state's birth rate has been ridiculed by legal scholars and other commentators.

A Los Angeles Times editorial columnist said Kentucky had reached "a new low in poorly thought-out reasons for keeping gay and lesbian couples from marrying," while a headline in Salon asked, "Dumbest argument against marriage equality yet?"

Latherow declined to be interviewed but agreed to answer a few questions about herself by email.

She said she grew up attending church in Harlan and still attends church regularly, though she wouldn't disclose which one or her denomination.

University of Kentucky law professor Robert Lawson, who taught her in three classes, said she was a "very good" student and served on the law review, an honor bestowed on students in the top 10 percent to 15 percent of their class.

After clerking for two federal judges, she moved to Ashland to join the firm at which she still works, VanAntwerp, Monge, Jones, Edwards & McCann.

She said she met her husband, David Latherow, a partner in another Ashland law firm, through professional associations.

While she often represents corporate defendants, she said she also frequently represents plaintiffs, particular in civil rights employment litigation. She also said she does pro bono work for Northeast Kentucky Legal Aid.

In her Supreme Court case, she represented North American Stainless, a Carroll County company, and won two decisions in its favor from the 6th Circuit, only to see them reversed in a unanimous opinion written by Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote that the anti-retaliation rules in the federal Civil Rights Act must be applied broadly — including to spouses who work at the same company as those who file complaints.

Despite the result, Hagerman said just appearing at the high court was a huge honor. "At least she got there," he said.

Latherow's mother, who still lives in Harlan, is a retired high school English teacher, while her late father retired as director of environmental health for the county health department.

She and her husband's three children include fraternal twins who are entering sixth grade and a son who will be a freshman at Centre College and was a 4.0 student and star football player for the Ashland Paul Blazer High School Tomcats.

She said reaction to the case in Ashland has been mixed.

"There are strong opinions on both sides of the issue," she said. "And people from each side have expressed their views to me."

Reporter Andrew Wolfson can be reached at (502) 582-7189

LEIGH GROSS LATHEROW

Age: 45

Education: University of Kentucky, UK law school

Admitted to bar: 1993

Firm: VanAntwerp, Monge, Jones, Edwards & McCann

Lives in: Ashland

Family: Married, three children

LAURA LANDENWICH

Age: 34

Education: Indiana University Southeast, University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law

Admitted to bar: 2007

Firm: Clay Daniel Walton Adams

Lives in: Louisville

Family: Married, two children