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Assaults on rule of regulation will fail as a result of attorneys ‘are fierce’ and ‘very resourceful,’ says DC Bar president-elect
By Anna Stolley Persky
June 20, 2025, 11:17 am CDT
“Legal professionals are fighters, and judges will observe the regulation,” says Diane Seltzer, the president-elect of the D.C. Bar for the 2025-2026 time period. “We’re fierce; we care deeply about justice; and we’re very, very resourceful find methods to verify we prevail.”
After U.S. Legal professional Normal Pam Bondi was sworn in earlier this 12 months, she reportedly started to purge profession Division of Justice attorneys. In April, she mentioned the DOJ would discover and prosecute “deranged” judges serving to immigrants keep away from arrest. Extra not too long ago, an ethics grievance submitted to the Florida Bar accused Bondi of pressuring DOJ attorneys to behave unethically.
Contemplating these issues, some eyebrows have been raised when her brother Brad Bondi, additionally a lawyer, entered the D.C. Bar elections to run for the president-elect spot. The June election had a file variety of voters, with greater than 38,000 ballots, in comparison with 7,500 within the final election. And Brad Bondi, the worldwide co-chair of Paul Hastings’ investigations and white-collar protection observe, misplaced to employment lawyer Diane Seltzer, who gained with greater than 90% of the vote.
Washington, D.C., bar members “unflinchingly locked arms to make it possible for we’ve got a frontrunner who has the {qualifications} its president ought to have and whose values—No. 1 being preserving the rule of regulation—mirror their values,” Seltzer says.
In an announcement, Brad Bondi mentioned he was “disgusted by how rabid partisans lurched this election into the political gutter, turning an expert marketing campaign into baseless assaults, identification politics and partisan recrimination.”
Defending the rule of regulation is Seltzer’s high worth. She’s additionally had positions with the ABA. That features serving as co-chair of the ABA Litigation Part’s employment and labor relations committee and as co-chair of the part’s solo and small regulation agency committee. Moreover, she was a vice-chair and a co-chair of the Solo, Small Agency and Normal Follow Division’s litigation committee.
“The assaults will fail as a result of attorneys are fighters, and judges will observe the regulation,” she says. “We’re fierce; we care deeply about justice; and we’re very, very resourceful find methods to verify we prevail.”
Seltzer begins her time period as president-elect of the D.C. Bar for the 2025-2026 time period July 1. She spoke with the ABA Journal in regards to the election and the problems dealing with attorneys in the present day.
The battle for D.C. Bar president acquired a number of media consideration for one thing that usually goes underneath the radar. What was your perspective on the media scrutiny?
To me, the election was about somebody (me) with many years of involvement and over 13 years of management expertise within the D.C. Bar operating in opposition to somebody who had no such expertise. So the actual difficulty was, what was finest for the bar and its members? The media scrutiny and curiosity made full sense to me. After all, the media would care about why somebody intently linked to the present administration would all of a sudden vie for the highest place with the D.C. Bar as a result of the curiosity actually appeared to come back out of nowhere. The media needed to discover the variations within the candidates and the platforms—and rightly so.
What was your first response while you discovered that Brad Bondi was additionally operating for D.C. Bar president?
My first response was, “Oh, what a humorous coincidence to have the identical final identify because the lawyer common.” After which I quickly realized they have been siblings and thought, “OK, this might get attention-grabbing.”
You gained decisively. What was your response to the way in which attorneys voted for you?
I used to be actually overjoyed. My youngsters have been there, and we simply began smiling and hugging after I acquired the decision.
What makes Washington, D.C., totally different from different areas the place attorneys observe?
Washington is an enormous metropolis but in addition small city—is there anyplace else within the nation the place there are such a lot of attorneys inside a number of sq. miles? I don’t assume so. And we’re very accustomed to one another, very collegial, very supportive of one another. Our bar is filled with brilliant, energetic overachievers who continually raise one another up.
What are your targets for the D.C. Bar throughout your time period as president?
I wish to meet with our members and see what they want from the bar to really feel secure practising regulation and representing the shoppers they wish to signify. I wish to make sure that our bar can supply the assist that our members want, so we are able to return to worrying about whether or not we missed a case in our temporary or ready sufficient for our trial, moderately than worrying if we’re going to get up to some type of retaliation for doing our jobs or submitting a lawsuit as a result of our shopper was denied due course of by the federal government. I’m an employment lawyer, and I’m seeing issues I’ve by no means seen in virtually 34 years of practising regulation. And never all the time in a great way. On a lighter observe, I wish to strengthen {our relationships} and collaborations with our voluntary and affinity bar associations. There’s a lot we are able to do collectively, and I wish to capitalize on our synergy. It may possibly’t all be heavy. That’s not sustainable. e have to get pleasure from being attorneys and benefit from the relationships we’ve got with different members of our career.
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