An act of protest I hadn't considered:
voting in a bar association election
I don’t love talking about the specific jurisdictions I’m barred in because I’m an elder millennial who remembers the talks I got in middle school about being careful with information on the internet. And yeah, maybe I did ask a/s/l too many times in too many chat rooms but I also believed my parents when they told me the internet was forever so be careful about what you put on it.
This is too important to not talk about though (a reoccurring theme in 2025????) so we’re going to talk about the D.C. Bar Association elections.
I will yell until I am blue in the face about the importance of local elections, especially the elections that govern and discipline license holders of all kinds, including attorneys. Bar associations act as the governing body for licensed attorneys in each state/district.
Now, to be confusing (because isn’t that really what the legal profession is), there is an organization called the American Bar Association (you’ve probably seen some posts recently from them reminding the legal profession about the importance of upholding our oath to protect the constitution AND our various ethical requirements) but belonging to the ABA and belonging to the state bar association are not the same.
Long story long: ABA membership gets you access to trainings and committees nationally (and locally), resources for education credits (required for licenses, typically), and networking opportunities. You can access legal journals and interesting writings from other lawyers too and it’s generally a good thing to belong to.
Membership to your state (or district) bar is required to practice law in that state. Required. It is a big deal to become barred—the journey begins long before even taking the bar exam because you had to study and pass the LSAT, apply for and attend (and pay for) law school, graduate, then study for and pass the bar, complete mountains of paperwork for each step of that process, and finally, pay upwards of thousands of dollars to have the state say you’re eligible to practice. I did it the hard way (more to come on that later this month) but it’s no picnic process even if you know what you’re doing.
Once you pay for membership into the state/district bar, you can access state legal journals, networking opportunities, committees, and other legal resources. You have to pay a yearly fee to be considered “in good standing” which means you can tell the public that you’re a licensed professional attorney and the state vouches for your professionalism(ish). “In good standing” really just means that you are current on dues and ethics requirements.
There’s typically a required ethics course needed to complete your membership. Some states/districts have specific requirements for pro bono services (free legal time/advice/consultation/a way to share your legal knowledge with community members who may not have access to legal help), some have requirements for continued legal education, you can see where I’m going with this.
A part of membership means consenting to the bar association governing you and your practice. There’s typically a committee or some kind of governing body within the bar association that specifically handles discipline for attorneys. This means if you mess up as an attorney, the association can come after your license (remember how Rudy Guiliani got disbarred in NY and DC for lying about the 2020 election?) because the association is the governing body over that license. If you don’t follow the bar’s rules, you’re out.
Long story short(er): D.C. Bar Elections are coming up (voting closes on June 4, 2025) and the US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has a brother who is running for DC Bar President. There’s a longer game at play here, trying to get the current administration even more control over the DC legal game. It’s not enough to come after law firms through executive orders; they want power and control over how the bar association would handle professional conduct and disciplinary measures for members.
Break it down further: bar association leadership (in DC at least) recommend members to sit on disciplinary boards. Those boards handle disciplinary actions against attorneys and consider questions of professional conduct. Now think about how there are DC barred attorneys who are currently or have previously gone after the current administration in court for one reason or another. Members of a disciplinary board that wants to appease the current administration might make some bad calls—maybe everything is totally normal and fine orrrrrrrr maybe the disciplinary board decides that attorneys who uphold and embolden the bad decisions of this administration shouldn’t be reprimanded. Maybe that board decides to revoke bar licenses’ from immigration attorneys, just because. Retaliation is not above this crowd and we should remember that going into this vote.
This bad news Bondi guy has already been written about (NBC) and there are a few videos floating about online, including this tiktok from a concerned DC attorney. If you’re barred in DC, please please vote this year for Diane Seltzer and vote before June 4th. Please tell other attorneys, please tell your friends, please let’s not give the Bondi name anymore power in DC!
We’re in this marathon against fascism together,
Just Kaylee, J.D.