Brother of US attorney general Bondi runs to lead DC Bar

By David Thomas

March 6 (Reuters) - Brad Bondi, a corporate defense lawyer who is the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, is one of the candidates in an upcoming election to lead the mandatory professional membership organization for Washington's 120,000 lawyers.

Brad Bondi is running to serve as DC Bar president in an election that begins in April, according to the organization's website, and is one of at least two lawyers with ties to Republican U.S. President Donald Trump's administration running for a leadership role. Alicia Long, a deputy to Trump's interim U.S. Attorney in Washington Ed Martin, is seeking to serve as treasurer.

Bondi, a partner and co-chair of the investigations and white-collar defense practice at law firm Paul Hastings, and Long did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

If elected, Bondi and Long would sit on the DC Bar's 23-person Board of Governors, which plays an indirect, limited role in enforcing professional ethics rules for Washington attorneys by recommending members to sit on a separate panel that oversees an Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

The disciplinary office, created by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, has the power to investigate attorney misconduct and to recommend suspending or disbarring lawyers. It has pursued several cases against attorneys involved in efforts to overturn Trump's defeat to Democrat Joe Biden during the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

The appeals court has the final say on all disciplinary matters. It can reject the Board of Governors' recommendations for the disciplinary panel, and the bar's president cannot sway investigatory decisions, said DC Bar CEO Robert Spagnoletti.

"There's no way for any particular board member or president to affect that process," Spagnoletti said. "The president doesn't have much in the way of independent power."

Bondi's nomination for the presidency still rattled some lawyers in Washington who circulated messages about his candidacy on social media on Wednesday.

Pam Bondi, a strong Trump loyalist, has echoed some of the U.S. president's false claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and as head of the U.S. Justice Department, she plans a review of criminal and civil cases brought against Trump while he was out of office.

Among its recent disciplinary cases, the DC Bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel investigated Jeffrey Clark, a senior U.S. Justice Department official from Trump's first term accused of violating ethics rules by making false claims about the integrity of the 2020 election. A panel in August recommended a two-year suspension for Clark, who has denied wrongdoing.

Anyone can file a complaint with the Office of Disciplinary Counsel. At least two have been filed against Martin, including one on Thursday by Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee led by Dick Durbin of Illinois.

The senators alleged Martin has threatened to prosecute Democratic officials and other critics of the Trump administration "with the apparent intent of intimidating government employees and chilling the speech of private citizens." A spokesperson for the U.S. attorneys office in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the complaint.

Bondi's opponent running for DC Bar president is Diane Seltzer, an employment law attorney who has served on the Board of Governors for the past five years. She also said the bar president has limited influence over discipline and other matters.

"This is not a one-person show," Seltzer said.