Meet President-Elect Candidate Amy L. Bess
March 12, 2026
The D.C. Bar's 2026 general and Communities elections will run from April 15 to June 3. Eligible voters will receive an email link to their ballots via Survey & Ballot Systems, an independent vendor administering the elections. Results of the elections will be announced on the Bar's website and during the 2026 Celebration of Leadership on June 18.
Here, get to know Amy L. Bess, one of two candidates running for D.C. Bar president-elect for the 2026–2027 term. The president-elect serves for one year before becoming president and then continues in office a third year as immediate past president.
If elected, Amy L. Bess, Vedder's managing shareholder for its Washington, D.C., office and regional lead for the firm's labor and employment practice, would use her presidency to identify pathways to leadership for young members of the Bar.
"My goal is to create more of a mentoring culture among D.C. Bar members," Bess says. "Specifically, I want to institute a culture in which senior members of the Bar reach out and offer their guidance, support, and wisdom to younger members to help them navigate the early years of professional life and to help them pursue opportunities for leadership within the D.C. Bar and the voluntary bars."
Bess believes that mentorship can be enormously beneficial to the advancement of young attorneys' professional careers. "But also, I've experienced personally how mentoring young attorneys can be as beneficial to the mentor as the mentee," Bess says. "Mentorship will be a big part of my platform because I believe not just in providing people with a seat at the existing table, but also in expanding the table to include more people and offer even greater opportunities."
"I envision a 'call to action' for senior Bar members in which they commit to devote a certain amount of their time to mentoring a junior Bar member, with the Bar supporting those relationships by providing leadership training, introductions to Bar leadership opportunities, and the convening of networking opportunities for mentors and mentees to interact with other mentor/mentee partners to build important relationships," adds Bess, who previously co-chaired the D.C. Bar Strategic Planning Committee, leading the group responsible for rolling out the John Payton Leadership Academy.
Bess notes that she has been "immensely inspired by the leadership of our current Bar president, Sadina Montani, who has been a mentee and a close colleague of mine for many years." Their relationship, Bess says, "is a perfect example of how mentorship is a two-way street, and how mentors can be inspired by and learn from their mentees." As a secondary platform, Bess says she hopes to continue Montani's work expanding and developing strong relationships between the D.C. Bar and voluntary bars as well as with national and international bar organizations. Bess observes that "the ability to forge critical relationships and to find common ground that enables the successful pursuit of a common goal are absolutely essential leadership skills."
"Sadina has been wonderfully successful in her relationship building efforts. She has been an incredible ambassador for the D.C. Bar," Bess says. "I hope to build on her successes, as I believe relationship building is something we have in common. It goes back to the theme of mentorship. I hope to continue Sadina's legacy of leading from the front by listening to those who are still climbing. My goal is to ensure that the Bar is not just a place where young lawyers can serve, but a place where they are systematically equipped to lead."
Bess served two terms on the D.C. Bar Board of Governors (2008–2014) and as both a member and leader of the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Committee (2014–2018). She is a longtime member of the Labor and Employment Law Community of the D.C. Bar and the Labor and Employment Law Section of the American Bar Association.
In October 2022, Bess was appointed by the D.C. Bar to serve as a commissioner on the D.C. Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure (CJDT); in January she was elected CJDT chair, a position she still holds.
Bess served a three-year elected term on the board of the Women's Bar Association (2005–2008), which named her a 2025 "Star of the Bar." She has also served many years on the Women's Bar Association Foundation, which included time as president (2013–2014) and as chair of the foundation's Grants Committee.
Bess sits on the board and serves as secretary of the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence and served for 15 years (2005–2020) as a board member and general counsel for Everybody Wins DC, a local children's literacy nonprofit organization that pairs adult reading mentors with elementary students. Bess is a longtime pro bono lawyer for SisterMentors, an EduSeed project, a nonprofit providing mentoring relationships to young women of color.
Other local nonprofits that Bess supports with pro bono legal services include Change Summer, Community of Hope, the National Housing Trust, the Father McKenna Center, and the Human Trafficking Legal Center. Vedder, which tracks and awards outstanding commitment to pro bono service by its attorneys annually, has recognized Bess's pro bono efforts on numerous occasions.
In 2019 Bess and Montani were co-awarded the Tom Nees Award for Exceptional Service by Community of Hope, a nonprofit organization that aids low-income families experiencing homelessness in the District of Columbia. Bess and Montani also shared a 2016 appreciation award from the Prevention of Blindness Society of Metropolitan Washington recognizing their pro bono work on behalf of the organization.
Bess says that her long-standing involvement with the D.C. Bar and other area organizations informs her platform and her perspective on leadership. "My involvement with the Women's Bar Association and the D.C. Bar has literally changed the course of my legal career. [These organizations have] enhanced my professional skills as a lawyer and have been incredibly enriching in terms of the personal friendships I've made along the way," she says.
"I want to encourage young lawyers and future lawyers to become active members of the D.C. Bar because these early investments of time will pay off as a source of professional skill development, referral relationships, introductions to potential clients, and the development of relationships with potential mentors and others who will help junior Bar members make important professional connections," she continues.
Bess completed her juris doctor at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law and has been a member of the D.C. Bar for nearly four decades. She credits her early training and practice as a social worker on the west side of Chicago for instilling in her a service mindset that continues to guide her professional life to this day.
That experience, Bess says, has shaped how she listens, questions, and skillfully navigates emotionally charged situations in her legal and organizational work. "Despite over three decades of practicing law, I am still a social worker at heart," Bess adds.
