A local campaign to elect the next president of the D.C. Bar Association has triggered unusual scrutiny due to a leading candidate’s association with the Trump administration.
Brad Bondi, brother of President Donald Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, is running to lead the D.C. Bar.
His candidacy to lead the largest bar in the country, which boasts over 120,000 members, has sparked criticism from Democrats. They have argued that Pam Bondi has unleashed detrimental attacks on the Constitution at the Justice Department, and allowing her brother to head Washington’s influential bar association would enable him to coordinate partisan attacks on Trump’s political enemies.
Brad Bondi has attempted to tamp down worries, saying he wants to keep the role “apolitical.” However, the debate has driven record levels of engagement in the local election, drawing more than 30,000 votes thus far, which is triple the participation of a typical cycle, according to NPR.
Brad Bondi is vying for the position along with Diane Seltzer, an employment attorney who operates her own firm. She has accused Pam Bondi of spurring fear in the legal community for “just doing our own jobs.”
“We’re no longer afraid of ‘What if I’m not prepared or if I missed a case I should have known,’” Seltzer said at a recent event to meet the bar presidential candidates. “We’re literally afraid of terrible consequences just for doing our jobs.”
“My priority is making sure that the rule of law is upheld, that we feel that we are safe to do our jobs and that we can go forward every day representing the clients we choose,” she added.
Brad Bondi holds a litany of qualifications. He’s a partner at the criminal defense firm Paul Hastings, in which he co-chairs the investigations and white-collar defense practice. He has taught as an adjunct professor at Yale, Georgetown, George Mason, and Catholic University law schools, and he endowed a scholarship at the University of Florida College of Law.
He has touted his credentials, saying he’s spent over two decades in private legal practice, held six years of D.C. Bar leadership, and has been twice elected to a bar leadership position.
“As an active member of the D.C. Bar for 26 years, I’ve also been elected twice to the steering committee of the D.C. Bar section on Corporations, Finance, and Securities Law and have devoted over 20 years to D.C. Bar-sponsored pro bono work,” he told Above the Law. “This isn’t about politics; I’m running to help strengthen our profession and support members of the Bar no matter what their beliefs or backgrounds.”
His critics, including George Conway, a prominent lawyer who has argued before the Supreme Court, haven’t necessarily disputed Brad Bondi’s experience. Instead, his relationship with Trump’s top prosecutor has worried critics most.
Conway joined opponents of Brad Bondi last month. The husband of prominent Trump ally Kellyanne Conway, he has publicly differentiated himself from his wife on political matters, standing hard and fast against the White House on several policies.
While he is not a member of the D.C. Bar, George Conway posted a video on Instagram encouraging members to support Seltzer. He said, although he had “nothing personally against [Brad],” he could not support him due to his sister’s “full-scale assault on our Constitution and on the rule of law.”
“A number of years ago, in more ordinary times, we worked together at different firms for the same client on related matters, and I found him to be a fine and honorable professional. We even had enjoyable conversations about political matters on which we pretty much agreed,” George Conway said.
“But here’s the rub,” he added. “In these extraordinary times, the D.C. Bar, like all bar associations, has a moral obligation to take stands against the debasement of the rule of law that Pam Bondi is helping to carry out.”
“That’s why Brad Bondi isn’t the right person to lead the D.C. Bar at this time, not now, not at this extraordinarily perilous moment for our legal system,” he concluded.
At a virtual presidential debate last week, Brad Bondi cited George Conway’s comments as he criticized Seltzer for spreading “claims that I was involved in a conspiracy to destroy the rule of law and was an existential threat to the country.”
“My opponent’s approach is to take us down a path of division and diversion,” he said during the Zoom forum. “I need your vote to keep our bar apolitical, as it’s meant to be, and I need you to spread the word to your colleagues.”
Although D.C. Bar presidents help set the agenda for the nation’s third-largest state bar association, they play primarily an administrative role and have no say in attorney discipline. Presidents of the bar may serve in the position for roughly three years. The D.C. Bar’s 2025 elections began online in mid-April. Members have until early June to turn in their ballots.
Brad Bondi’s platform includes proposals to expand free online continuing legal education programs and to stop charging members for certificates of good standing.
“If elected, I will work to bring together the various communities within the Bar and promote unity and inclusion. I intend to expand the CLE programs that are offered to Bar members and promote greater pro bono participation,” he said in a statement. “The D.C. Bar is not, and must not become, a political organization. I will fight vigorously against any attempts externally or internally to change that. The D.C. Bar should continue its role as a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization committed to the service of its members.”
Al Sharpton, a nationally recognized civil rights activist with Democratic views, also opposed Brad Bondi’s bid.
PAM BONDI CELEBRATES ARRESTS THAT ‘MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN’
During an appearance on MSNBC in late April, Sharpton weighed in on the D.C. election. He agreed with arguments that Trump is “seating the bar with his allies.”
“He absolutely seems to be obsessed with trying to just burn the legal system and the checks and balances as we’ve known them to the ground,” he warned.