Member Communication Policy

Excerpted from DC Bar Policy on Access to Member Information
November 13, 1984; Amended April 8, 2003

1. The primary method of direct communication with the membership is by mail. The Bar believes that e-mail is an efficient and cost-effective alternative to mail. Within thirty (30) days after a member’s admission to the D.C. Bar, the Bar will give the member an opportunity to elect e-mail communication as the primary means of communication with the member. Thereafter, any member has the right to modify his/her primary means of communication by notifying the Bar in writing.
2. Members who elect e-mail communication as their primary means of member communication will receive all communication that the Bar makes available in electronic format by that means. It is the member’s responsibility to provide any changes to his/her e-mail address in compliance with Court Rule II (2). These communications could include official Bar and Court notices, committee communication, section notices and announcements, surveys, and publications. The list of communications made available in electronic form is subject to change.
3. A member who does not elect the e-mail communication option but has a valid e-mail address contained within his/her file may receive official e-mail notices from the D.C. Bar. These communications could include, but are not limited to official notices from the Bar or the Court or announcements from the Bar’s standing and special committees. For the former, official notices will be provided to active members without valid e-mail addresses by either mail, publication in a Bar periodical, or both.
4. Official e-mail from the D.C. Bar for the purpose of this policy is defined as messages that are sent without the member expressing an interest in receiving these messages either through subscribing or joining a Bar group, such as a committee or section. The two categories of official e-mail sent under this policy would include time-sensitive messages such as Court announcements, notices of significant Bar deadlines, changes in Bar policies or by-laws, and requests for member comment; or scheduled informational announcements from the Bar’s standing and special committees. These informational announcements may not generally be mailed or published in a Bar publication.
5. The Bar will give the member an opportunity to opt-out of these scheduled messages by either reply message or by notifying the Bar in writing. Also, the Bar will exercise discretion in the frequency of these announcements it sends to the membership. To this end, scheduled announcements from the Bar’s standing and special committees are limited to no more frequent than monthly with announcements containing messages from one or more of the Bar’s endorsed business partners limited to the lesser of four times per fiscal year or once per quarter.
6. Consistent with the Bar’s aforementioned policy not to provide members’ e-mail addresses to any external entity, e-mail communication from the Bar may not include any message on behalf of a third-party vendor unless that vendor has a written endorsement agreement with the D.C. Bar.