More Whistling In The Wind

The District of Columbia Bar has dedicated much of the February 2016 issue of its Washington Lawyer magazine to congratulating itself for its wonderful decision to build a building and charge it off to the membership.

Without a hint or recognition of the irony, the Bar leadership has also posted a short Youtube video on the building move with the title Giving Members What They Want.

If they actually cared about what dues-paying members think and want, they would have put this hugely consequential building issue to a vote of the membership. 

My friend Paul Pearlstein commented recently on a post in which I questioned this grossly inappropriate and dangerous use of mandatory bar dues. 

I fear that the next generation of District of Columbia lawyers will pay a steep price for the Bar’s ill-founded confidence in itself as an investor in downtown Washington real estate.

The core purpose of mandatory dues is to fund the operation of the disciplinary system. We justify self-regulation through the process of rigorous investigation of complaints alleging misconduct and, where appropriate, prosecution of attorneys who fail to meet minimum standards of competence and integrity.

The Bar’s 2015-16 budget shows a cost of $8,883, 500 allocated to the D.C. disciplinary system.

One nice piece of transparency is the Bar’s disciplinary decisions web page. There one can easily take a snapshot to evaluate the efficiency of the dues-funded system.

In just a few clicks, I was able to review every Board on Professional Responsibility report in original (non-reciprocal) matters from March 4, 2015 to March 4, 2016.

The results:

The BPR issued 15 reports in the past  year.

Seven of the 15 were simple approvals of consents to disbarment.

Two had involved referrals in criminal convictions.

Six involved  original prosecutions initiated through  a petition filed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

It apparently costs more than a million dollars to generate a single disciplinary prosecution. 

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel employs 17 full-time attorneys. The Board on Professional Responsibility’s Office of the Executive Attorney employs six.

Go to the web pages of the Illinois and North Carolina disciplinary systems to gauge the comparative productivity of other disciplinary offices.

As of today, North Carolina is prosecuting 28 active matters. Illinois files more charges in a month than D.C. does in a year.

Are D.C. lawyers just far more ethical than those in other jurisdictions?

Functioning adults know the answer to the question.  (Mike Frisch)