The State Bar of California, which all lawyers practicing in California must be members of, will hold its September convention at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, despite a boycott of the hotel that started after Doug Manchester, whose company owns the Hyatt, contributed $125,000 to support Proposition 8.
The move has sparked criticism, but Holly Fujie, the state bar's president, said the association has had a contract with the hotel since 2004. Fujie said her group has a liquidated damages clause of almost $450,000 that would have to be paid if it broke the contract.
Also, "the bar cannot engage in political activity," she said. "If we were to do this, we would be absolutely certain of being sued."
The bar, which has about 217,000 members, would likely lose such a lawsuit, Fujie said, and would also have to pay attorneys fees.
The organization is also set to hold its 2011 meeting at the Hyatt, and Fujie said there's a $250,000 liquidated damages clause for that year.
The decision not to change the contract with Hyatt was made by the board at a closed meeting Friday, January 23.
Reaction to keeping the meeting at the Hyatt has been "primarily negative," said Fujie, who is straight but "very strongly" opposed Prop 8.
[Updated: On Thursday, January 29, Russell Roeca, president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, sent a letter to Fujie in which he said he won't stay at the Hyatt, and he won't buy anything from the hotel, either.
"I expect that many if not all of BASF's members who attend the [Conference of Delegates] and the State Bar annual meeting will plan to do the same," Roeca wrote, citing the group's long-standing support of same-sex marriage.
"I actually expect that the selection of the Manchester Hyatt for this year's events may cause a significant number of State Bar members to stay away from this year's CDCBA and State Bar annual meeting entirely," Roeca added.]
Rebecca Prozan, who co-chairs the LGBT group Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom, said the organization has put in a call to Fujie to air its concerns, and it also wants to talk to the Conference of Delegates of state bar associations.
That agency, which lobbies on law-related issues, is a separate entity from the state bar, but the two groups will be holding their September meetings together.
"We don't want to reward financially ... any person or any entity who supported Prop 8," said Prozan. The measure, passed by California voters in November, eliminates same-sex couples' right to marry in California.
Prozan said that her organization is seeking the conference of delegates' support on a number of changes to laws, and "if we don't attend the conference, we won't get it." She said she hasn't personally decided if she's going to the convention, which is September 10-13.
At least one person has made a decision about the conference. Nancy Knupfer, president of the Beverly Hills Bar Association, wrote a letter on behalf of the group to Fujie urging the state bar to pick a different venue. In the letter, Knupfer stated that she would not be staying at the Hyatt, and would not purchase anything that might benefit it.
Knupfer, who's straight, told the Bay Area Reporter that she's heard from people in her group and other bar associations who "don't believe that the state bar should support a hotel that repudiates the civil rights of others ... We're attorneys. Our job is to protect the rights of others."
Kelly Commerford, director of marketing at the Hyatt, has said Manchester doesn't represent the views of Hyatt, and that the hotel is operated and managed as gay-friendly.