A Sad Day; Needless Confusion Ahead

When the District of Columbia Court of Appeals came into existence in the early 1970s, the court created a disciplinary system that gave significant review authority to the newly-created Board on Professional Responsibility and investigative and prosecutorial authority to the newly-created Office of Bar Counsel.

Every case ever decided in the following four decades refers to the Office of Bar Counsel.

So it was but not so shall it be.

The court today ordered that Bar Counsel henceforth be known as Disciplinary Counsel.

My humble views on the subject may be found here.

By letter to Chief Judge Washington dated May 14, 2014, the Board [of Governors] gave three reasons for changing the name that has been used in court opinions and known to the Bar and the public since 1972:

1. “To reflect more accurately the activities of the prosecutorial office of the disciplinary system;”

2. “To resolve the current confusion among the members of the Bar who believe that Bar Counsel is the office that they should contact to advise them about ethical questions; and”

3. “To avoid erroneous service of process on disciplinary authorities perceived to be counsel for the District of Columbia Bar in matters in which the Bar is sued.”

Well.

If you want to avoid confusion, don’t change the name that an Office has been known by for the past 42 years.

It is also well known and made clear to whoever calls Bar Counsel that the office  does not provide ethical advice. That has been so since the 1980s. Any calls are simply referred to the Bar’s Ethics Counsel. Reason #2 is entirely specious. — a solution without a problem.

But it is the third justification that really grabs me –they want to it make it easier to sue the Bar. That doesn’t even pass a laugh test.

I’m not sure what is behind this truly awful idea, but it surely is not for the reasons given by the Board of Governors.

As a seventeen plus year alumnus 0f the organization, this honestly saddens me and feels like a measure of disrespect for the contributions of the people who made that office great: Fred Grabowsky, Ed Yourman, Joe Mayer, Tom Flynn, Fred Abramson, Len Becker.

Look for needless confusion for years. (Mike Frisch)