Paul Hastings environmental partner Tom Mounteer's Dupont Circle townhouse was filled with law partners this week for a get-together with Williams Institute founding director Brad Sears. Above, Jenner & Block appellate and Supreme Court chair Paul Smith (of Lawrence v. Texas and DOMA victory fame), Tom, and Skadden M&A partner Brian Breheny. The Williams Institute is a national think tank that supports research and analysis of issues affecting LGBT populations. (Brad started there in '01 after graduating from Yale and Harvard Law, and subsequently grew its endowment from $2.5M to more than $17M.) If that mysterious "May 22" in the background was making you curious, it's the date of the upcoming annual Williams Institute spring reception at the Carnegie Institute.

Brad(second from right, flanked by The Atlantic Washington editor Steve Clemons and the Raben Group's Donald Gatlin)tells us he's in DC at least once a month, leaving behind the no-doubt-nicer weather of LA, where he's based at UCLA. The Williams Institute is filing amicus briefs for both the Supreme Court DOMA and Prop 8 cases, which are due next week.