About the Bar
The District of Columbia Bar is the second largest unified bar association in the United States. The D.C. Bar’s core functions, supported by member dues, are the registration of lawyers, operation of a lawyer disciplinary system, maintenance of a Clients’ Security Fund, and certain other administrative operations. Many of the important educational and public service programs carried out by the Bar are made possible by voluntary contributions, user fees, and other nondues sources of income.
The Bar is governed by a Board of Governors composed of 20 lawyers selected by the active membership and three members of the public appointed by the Bar itself as nonvoting members.
History
Created by the District of Columbia
Court of Appeals in 1972, the precipitating force for the Bar’s
creation was the legal community’s desire to have a single organization
that could uphold the ethical standards and Rules
of Professional Conduct.
Mission
The Bar’s mission is to provide service to the profession,
the courts, and the community. The purposes of the Bar are to aid the
court in carrying on and improving the administration of justice; to
foster and maintain high ideals of integrity, learning, competence in
public service, and high standards of conduct; to safeguard the proper
professional interest of the members of the Bar; to encourage the formation
and activities of volunteer bar associations; to provide a forum for
and to publish information relating to the discussion of subjects pertaining
to the practice of law, the science of jurisprudence and law reform,
and the relations of the Bar to the public; and to carry on a continuing
program of legal research and education and make reports and recommendations
in the technical fields of substantive law, practice, and procedure
so that the public responsibility of the legal professional is more
effectively discharged.
