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“which was a claim that was unfounded
by his history with the Vikings. Chris
Kluwe gave up an NFL career and
spoke up about something he thought
was wrong involving marriage. He was
warned while he was under contract with
the Vikings, but he didn’t [stop speaking
up] and he was fired. I’ll believe until the
day I die it was because he spoke out.”
For Halunen, who is gay, the case was
also valuable in starting an examination
about homophobia in professional sports.
“Teams have been allowed to get away
with [a homophobic culture], but as a
result of recent dialogue about the subject,
that culture seems to be changing,” he
says. “Even in professional sports, it’s
no longer acceptable to discriminate
based on someone’s sexual orientation or
identification. The point of the case was to
effectuate change, and that was the most
important part of what happened.”
Kluwe agrees. “[Clayton] came highly
recommended from people who knew the
legal side of same-sex rights,” he says. “We
were very much on the same page.”
HALUNEN’S FOCUS ON WHISTLEBLOWER
cases extends to a number of industries.
Three years ago, the firm represented
an employee of Abbott Laboratories in
a $1.5 billion settlement stemming from
illegal sales of Abbott’s anti-epilepsy
drug in violation of federal and state
False Claims Acts. The settlement
reflected the second-largest payment
by a drug company in the history of the
False Claims Act.
“He has a passion for the people he
represents,” says Minnesota First District
Judge Cynthia McCollum. “And I like how
concerned he is about training the younger
lawyers at his firm. He really cares about
More recently, Halunen and company
sued Woodbury-based for-profit educator
“We were able to expose publicly this
for-profit school that in my estimation was
more about money than education,” says
Halunen. “We alleged that the owners
had guaranteed financial aid as long as
they could sign people up. The money tree
kept growing.”
Weber, who was turned down by two
other attorneys before finding Halunen,
says, “When Clayton and I first met, I felt
like he got it. He cared about the issue,
not just the logistics of the suit.”
Initially, the Halunen firm only did
employment law, but now about half its
practice is consumer class action litigation
