Sexual Orientation and the Law: A Valuable and Valid Area of Jurisprudence

The thesis of this essay is that sexual orientation and the law is a legitimate course to offer in law schools and an appropriate topic for scholarly endeavor as well. In defense of my thesis, I present two very different cases that I litigated. The first case, Sandor v. General Motors, has no issues related to sexual orientation. The second, Hertzler v. Hertzler, focuses exclusively on sexual orientation. Their intimate connection lies in the fact that Sandor and Hertzler are, for both personal and professional reasons, the two most difficult cases I have litigated. More important to the topic at hand, these two matters serve as vehicles to compare and contrast how the law functions differently when the sexual orientation of one of the parties is at the heart of the legal dispute.