Let's look at the talent DC had arguing its side of the case. Here are the three outside legal firms hired.

O'Melveny & Myers LLP



Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP



Covington & Burling LLP



We are not talking about some second-rate ambulance chasers from Chcago. These are three of the largest and oldest frims in the nation. D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti also hired Todd Kim as the District’s first and only, Solicitor General. Mr. Kim was hired specifically to argue this case. Prior to becoming Solicitor General, Mr. Kim was an appellate attorney for the US Department of Justice. He is graduate of Harvard Law School.



The District is whining about getting whipped. Despite the virtual army of very expensive legal talent, resources, research staff and tax payer funding the District lost. Kaplan said Gura’s team did not build the case from scratch, relying instead on what he called decades of scholarly literature on the Second Amendment. Is the District's spokesman claiming that their position was so without merit that any second rate law firm would have kicked their ignorant asses? Is he admitting the District's Mayor and attorneys were too stupid or to obstinate to read the same scholarly literature on the Second Amendment and realize their position was indefensible?

But of course, the District has a vested interest in reducing the amount they pay the Plaintiff's legal team. They still have the bills they owe to that crew of thousand dollar an hour law firms, every billable minute, and the six figure salary of their Solicitor General to pay. They can't plead with a judge to reduce those.

Gura and his team deserve compensation no less than that of the law firms arrayed against them.