In September the D.C. Bar Board of Governors voted to recommend proposed revisions to the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct Governing Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts to the D.C. Court of Appeals. The board approved a new comment to Rule 1.15 and voted to exclude a proposed provision to monitor Bar members’ participation in IOLTA.

The board’s action comes after it voted in July to recommend to the court proposed revisions to IOLTA rules that would make participation in the IOLTA program mandatory for Bar members. The board also recommended adopting interest rate comparability provisions for banking institutions in which Bar members are permitted to hold client funds. On September 16, the board forwarded all of the proposed revisions to the D.C. Court of Appeals for its consideration.

The Bar’s Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee drafted the revisions, which allow an exemption from IOLTA participation only if a lawyer is otherwise compliant with contrary mandates of a tribunal, or when a lawyer is participating in, and compliant with, trust accounting rules and the IOLTA program of the jurisdiction where the lawyer is licensed and principally practices.

During its September meeting, the board approved a new comment to Rule 1.15 to provide guidance on good-faith determinations about where a multijurisdictional lawyer “principally practices.”

It also voted to exclude from the proposed changes a provision seeking to monitor Bar members’ participation in the IOLTA program by the D.C. Bar Foundation. This decision was reached after the Board on Professional Responsibility expressed concern about potential disciplinary implications and after questions were raised about the details of the foundation’s proposal.

The board agreed to reserve the monitoring provision for further study and forward the rest of the proposed IOLTA revisions to the Court of Appeals for its consideration.