Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, has lost his bid to lead Washington's attorney bar association after an unusually closely-watched election that drew record turnout from the U.S. capital's 120,000 lawyers (article available here).
Bondi, a partner at law firm Paul Hastings, lost the race to serve as bar president to Diane Seltzer, an employment law attorney at The Seltzer Law Firm.
D.C. Bar announced the results on Monday after a race which the group said drew a record 38,600 ballots, up from 7,500 in the last election. Seltzer secured more than 90 percent of the vote.
Membership in the association is mandatory for D.C. lawyers. The group's 23-person board, of which the president is a member, plays a limited role in enforcing ethics rules for attorneys by recommending members to sit on a separate panel that oversees the D.C. Office of Disciplinary Counsel.
The president in March directed Pam Bondi to refer lawyers and law firms for disciplinary action if they appeared to violate professional conduct rules.
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel, created by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, has authority to investigate attorney misconduct and to recommend suspending or disbarring lawyers.