Seltzer Yes; Bondi No
The web page of the District of Columbia Bar just announced the results of its most recent election.
The winning candidate received 34,982 votes to her opponent Brad Bondi’s 3,490.
Diane A. Seltzer, principal of the Seltzer Law Firm, has been elected president-elect of the D.C. Bar for the 2025–2026 term. Seltzer will serve in that position for one year starting July 1, 2025, when Sadina Montani, current president-elect, begins her term as the Bar’s 54th president.
Seltzer, who specializes in employment law, has served the D.C. Bar in many capacities, including as Board of Governors secretary from 2020 to 2021 and chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee for three terms. She also served on the Strategic Planning Committee for 2020–2025 as well as on the Screening, Communities, and Nominations Committees. In 2021 Seltzer was voted onto the Board of Governors, where she currently serves on its Executive Committee. Previously, she served on the board’s Budget Committee and Compensation Subcommittee.
Seltzer said she was overjoyed upon learning of the election results. “I trusted that our members would elect a president-elect who they know will be fierce for them and hear them with respect to the issues that matter [to them],” said Seltzer, who will begin her term as president on July 1, 2026. Seltzer said her election means that “we have a Bar full of lawyers who care about making sure their leadership reflects their values, which are maintaining the rule of law, being able to practice law without fear of retaliation, and having a leader who is experienced and has the qualifications to be in that position.”
Seltzer earned her law degree in 1991 from American University Washington College of Law. After graduation, she clerked for Judge Frederick C. Wright III, Judge John P. Corderman, and Judge Daniel Moylan of the Circuit Court for Washington County, Maryland.
In 1997 she launched her private practice, the Seltzer Law Firm. Seven years later, she joined two other attorneys in providing employment discrimination law training each year to federal judicial law clerks in Maryland. In 2016 the judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland presented Seltzer with its Exceptional Service Award.
An adjunct professor of law at American University from 2003 to 2023, Seltzer developed and taught the course “Human Resources Compliance” for the school’s Master of Legal Studies program.
D.C. Bar members also elected Amanda C. Molina, corporate counsel at Microsoft Corporation, to a one-year term as treasurer-elect. Joshua L. Mogil, a senior associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP and current treasurer-elect, will begin his term as treasurer on July 1.
An historic turnout.
The margin of victory would be notable under any circumstances but particularly so because the big firm candidate was overwhelmingly defeated by the small firm one.
Normally, the big firms would get out the vote and the result would be the exact opposite of that obtained here.
Above the Law covered the results and Mr. Bondi’s Linked In post in reaction to the loss.
As an active member of the District of Columbia Bar, I voted for the candidate who best reflected my values and beliefs.
My views were confirmed by Mr. Bondi’s performance at the candidates debate. (Mike Frisch)