美国律师事务所 Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner 已受聘于华盛顿州，负责为一项新通过的投票倡议进行辩护，该倡议禁止跨性别儿童参加女子校园体育比赛。该州检察长周四表示。
US law firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has been hired by Washington state to defend a newly passed ballot initiative barring transgender children from participating in girls’ school sports, the state’s attorney general said Thursday.
华盛顿州检察长尼克·布朗在一份声明中宣布了此次聘用，并指出其办公室在过去两年里为捍卫跨性别者权利做了“大量工作”。
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown announced the hire in a statement that noted his office has done “extensive work” defending the rights of transgender people over the past two years.
他说，当办公室无法自行处理案件时，无论是因为利益冲突、需要专业技能，还是仅仅因为工作量过大，该州经常聘请外部律师。“我的个人观点不决定捍卫哪些法律，也不决定辩护的力度，”布朗说。Bryan Cave 的发言人周五未立即回复置评请求。
He said the state frequently hires outside counsel "when our office cannot handle a case ourselves, whether because of a conflict of interest, a need for specialized expertise, or simply because of workload.”“My personal views do not dictate what laws get defended or the strength of that defense,” Brown said. A Bryan Cave spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
华盛顿州选民本月通过了 638 号倡议，要求学区和体育组织禁止“生物学男性”学生在 K-12 公立学校的女子专属体育比赛中参赛。
Washington voters this month passed Initiative 638, which requires school districts and athletic organizations to prohibit “biologically male” students from competing in female-only athletic competitions in K-12 public school sports.
该倡议已面临至少一项法律挑战。该州最大的教师工会、一个为跨性别儿童权益发声的非营利组织，以及七名跨性别学生的家长周一在州法院提起诉讼，主张该倡议及其性别核查程序具有歧视性，侵犯了学生的隐私权。他们寻求阻止该措施于 12 月 3 日生效。
The initiative already faces at least one legal challenge. The state’s largest teachers union, a nonprofit that advocates for transgender kids, and the parents of seven transgender students filed a lawsuit in state court on Monday, arguing that the initiative and the sex-verification process are discriminatory and violate students’ right to privacy. They are seeking to block the measure from going into effect on Dec. 3.
原告由华盛顿州美国公民自由联盟分会、Legal Voice 以及太平洋法律集团代理——后者是一家位于西雅图的律师事务所，经常为公共实体、非营利组织和倡导团体提供代理。布朗在 2025 年就职前曾是 Pacifica 的合伙人。
The plaintiffs are represented by the ACLU of Washington, Legal Voice, and Pacific Law Group — a Seattle-based law firm that frequently represents public entities, nonprofits and advocacy groups. Brown was a partner at Pacifica until he took office in 2025.
这种关联——加上检察长办公室在早期事务中为跨性别女运动员进行过辩护——招致了部分华盛顿州共和党人的批评。
That affiliation — and the attorney general’s office's defense of transgender female athletes in earlier matters — has generated criticism from some Washington Republicans.
“在一个理性的体系中，州检察长布朗与这家左翼律师事务所的密切个人和职业关系，本应要求其中一方承认存在利益冲突，并退出针对对方的法庭诉讼，”华盛顿州共和党主席吉姆·沃尔什周三在社交媒体上写道。 围绕638号倡议的更多诉讼可能即将到来。西雅图公立学校董事会本周投票决定，授权学区提起法律挑战。
“In a rational system, State AG Brown's close personal & professional ties to this left-wing law firm would require one of them to acknowledge a conflict of interest & withdraw from a court action against each other,” Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh wrote Wednesday on More litigation over Initiative 638 is likely. The Seattle Public Schools board of directors voted this week to allow the district to file a legal challenge.