Bondi’s Brother Stokes Hot Race as DC Bar Leader Voting Closes (1)

Voting closes today in a contentious election for DC Bar president that features Brad Bondi, whose sister is running the Justice Department under President Donald Trump.

In a record turnout, nearly 37,000 attorneys barred in the District of Columbia had cast their votes by Tuesday in the race between Bondi and employment lawyer Diane Seltzer. The bid by Bondi, a securities lawyer at Paul Hastings whose sister is Attorney General Pam Bondi, has fueled a get-out-the-vote effort by lawyers in the nation’s capital who are concerned he will further the administration’s agenda of attacking attorneys, law firms, and judges that the president views as enemies.

The election is about protecting the rule of law and the bar association, said George Conway, a prominent Republican lawyer and Trump critic who is supporting Seltzer. “Given the turnout we’re seeing, I think Diane is in good shape.”

The DC Bar is a mandatory professional association for the 120,000 lawyers licensed to practice in Washington. Its Office of Disciplinary Counsel, led by an independent staff housed within the bar, has charged Trump allies with legal ethics violations over their efforts to overturn former President Joe Biden‘s election win in 2020. Former Trump Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Clark and one-time Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani are among those who have seen their law licenses come under scrutiny. Giuliani was disbarred while Clark’s decision is pending.

Brad Bondi

Trump has waged a war on attorneys involved in lawsuits and investigations against the president, including those who worked on a federal probe of the 2020 Trump campaign. His administration also has targeted the American Bar Association, including by slashing federal grants, over diversity and rule of law initiatives.

“Unfortunately, a lot of the conversation about this race in particular has kind of been subsumed by the larger political winds, if you will,” according to Zack Smith, a legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Smith declined to say how he voted, but he and Bondi said bar members should not be concerned about Bondi’s possible influence on the regulation of lawyers’ ethics because disciplinary proceedings are run independently from bar leadership.

“These claims are politicized cheap shots, divorced from reality,” Bondi said in a statement. “The DC Bar president has no such authority and I have repeatedly pledged I would never confer with any outside party on bar procedures.”

‘Apolitical’ Vow

The race’s winner will earn a three-year tenure replacing Shaun Snyder, the current bar president and the CEO of the National Association of State Treasurers. Presidents preside over board meetings and attend committee meetings. They typically craft their own agendas during their term.

“I am proud that I ran a non-partisan campaign focused on the real issues and with extensive support from various sectors in the community, Bondi said. “As a mandatory bar association, the DC Bar is required to be apolitical and has no role in the disciplinary process, and I vowed to keep it that way.”

Seltzer has been volunteering for the DC Bar for more than two decades. She’s spent the past five years on the Bar’s board of governors. She said she’s worried about a newcomer with little experience within the DC Bar jumping into the top leadership role.

“I’m quite concerned about someone parachuting in to try to lead the bar when they’ve never been a leader in a significant way in the bar,” Seltzer said. “It takes time to learn how things work.”

Bondi rejected the attack, saying he’s served on finance committees within the bar in 2002 and 2019 and has participated in other peer programs at the association.

“That’s why my campaign is about serving all the bar’s widely diverse members, in contrast with this bare-knuckle partisanship on display from my opponent and from which our bar may never recover,” Bondi said.

The bar’s leadership historically have leaned left, according to Mike Fragoso, a partner at former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr’s boutique Torridon Law. Fragoso, who voted for Bondi, hopes he will realign the association’s priorities.

“You typically don’t see conservatives running for these positions because they’re largely kind of captured by the left and their programming tends assume that everybody who’s in the bar sort of thinks the same way,” said Fragoso, who previously was chief counsel to former Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Voting opened April 15. The results are expected to be announced June 9.

Bar Under Pressure

Trump is reshaping the Justice Department in the image of his own personal legal team under Pam Bondi, a longtime ally.

“This is a time in our country’s history where we cannot have the president of the DC Bar as a relative of the attorney general, who is herself an election denier and a tool of Donald Trump,” Democratic lawyer Marc Elias said in a April 24 video posted on Substack.

Brad Bondi, the co-chair of Paul Hastings’ investigations and white collar defense practice, has his own ties to Trump. He was part of a team that represented a blank-check company as it combined with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., which operates Trump’s Truth Social media platform. He also advised Elon Musk’s Tesla, Inc. in matters before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Bondi was recently hired by YouTube personality “MrBeast” Jimmy Donaldson and a group of investors for legal advice on a bid to buy TikTok Inc.

Seltzer runs her own law firm, advising clients on labor and employment matters. She was endorsed by prominent DC attorneys including Conway and the ABA’s most recent president, Mary Smith.

Bondi did not appear at a May 1 event for voters to meet the slate of candidates. He sent a Paul Hastings litigation associate, Nick Griepsma, who gave a speech in Bondi’s place, according to Seltzer.

“To me, that’s another tell,” Seltzer said.

Paul Hastings did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The massive law firm steered clear of Trump’s ire as the president attacked other major firms in a series of executive orders threatening lawyers’ security clearances and their clients’ government contracts. The president scored nearly $1 billion in free legal services from nine firms seeking to avoid similar orders against them.