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About Regulation Counsel
The District of Columbia Bar’s Department of Regulation Counsel manages programs and services that provide prospective direction, guidance and assistance to attorneys and their clients. These confidential non-disciplinary services include the Attorney/Client Relations Program, consisting of the Attorney/Client Arbitration Board and the Clients’ Security Fund (CSF); the Lawyer Assistance Program (LAP), the Legal Ethics Committee (LEC); the Practice Management Advisory Service (PMAS), and the Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee (Rules Review Committee). With the exception of the ACAB, all of the services are free to Bar members, D.C. law students and D.C. judges. The department also coordinates the functions of other committees as assigned by the D.C. Bar Board of Governors (BOG).

Regulation Counsel Highlights from FY 2009-10

Attorney/Client Arbitration Board

On May 11, 2010, the Board of Governors approved amendments to the Fee Arbitration Service Rules of Procedure of the Attorney/Client Arbitration Board (ACAB). One of the most substantive changes increased the maximum amount of fees in dispute that a sole arbitrator could adjudicate; the change raised the limit from $5,000 to $10,000. Other amendments defined the burden of proof and relevant evidence. The amendments also include stylistic changes to provide better clarity, and include changes to reflect current ACAB practice and the codification of ACAB policies. The amendments became effective on July 1, 2010.

Clients’ Security Fund

On December 8, 2009, the Board of Governors approved proposed amendments to Rule XII of the D.C. Court of Appeals Rules Governing the Bar and corresponding amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the Clients’ Security Fund (CSF). The proposed amendments were the result of several years of review and study of the Fund’s rules by the CSF Trustees. The first proposed amendment would eliminate the Fund’s preconditions or “jurisdictional triggers,” that must be present before a claim can be considered for reimbursement. The second proposed amendment would permit the Trustees to consider claims in which a claimant retained a disbarred attorney if the client reasonably believed that the attorney was licensed to practice law in the District at the time she was retained and if the attorney had been disbarred for two years or less when she was retained. On January 12, 2010, the Board of Governors submitted the proposed amendments to Rule XII to the Court for its consideration. A third proposed amendment to the Fund’s Rules of Procedure, which would increase the $75,000 per-claim limit, has been reserved for further study by a Bar task force.

Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee

During FY 2009-10, the Rules Review Committee completed an 18-month review of proposed changes to the rules governing the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA) program submitted by the D.C. Bar Foundation. The Rules Review Committee submitted proposed amendments to the IOLTA rules to the D.C. Bar Board of Governors, who approved the changes and submitted them to the D.C. Court of Appeals for its consideration. On March 22, 2010, the Court adopted the proposed revisions to the IOLTA rules. The changes became effective on August 1, 2010.

Under the revised rules, a D.C. Bar member or law firm possessing client funds that are nominal in amount or are to be held for a short period of time, and that would not likely earn net interest in a separate account must deposit those funds in a D.C. IOLTA account. Banking institutions in which Bar members are permitted to hold IOLTA accounts must offer interest rates that are comparable to non-IOLTA accounts (rate comparability).

A lawyer is exempt from participation in the D.C. IOLTA program if the lawyer is otherwise compliant with the 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.   

The changes to the IOLTA rules -- Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 and a new Section 20 of Rule XI of the D.C. Court of Appeals Rules Governing the Bar -- are intended to increase IOLTA interest revenue. The revenue from IOLTA accounts is forwarded to the D.C. Bar Foundation, which distributes the majority of the funds to legal services providers in the District. The changes will also provide greater clarity to the rules. A proposal addressing monitoring of D.C. Bar members’ participation in the IOLTA program by the Bar Foundation was not forwarded to the Court, but reserved for further study by the D.C. Bar’s Regulations/Rules/Board Procedures Committee.

Services include:

Attorney/Client Arbitration Board
Clients' Security Fund
Lawyer Assistance Program
Legal Ethics
Practice Management Advisory Service
Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee

Volunteering
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