Volunteer Opportunities

The Board on Professional Responsibility is looking for volunteers for its Hearing Committees.  Members of the Hearing Committees are assigned to hear lawyer discipline cases brought by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel and contested petitions for reinstatement filed by attorneys who are disbarred or suspended.  Hearing Committees also consider petitions for negotiated discipline.  Lawyer members of the hearing committees review and approve or suggest modifications of recommendations of dismissal, informal admonition, deferral, and the institution of formal charges filed by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel.

In contested disciplinary and reinstatement cases, the Hearing Committees consider evidence and the testimony of witnesses taken under oath.  A contested hearing can take anywhere from a few hours to several days.  At the conclusion of the hearing, the parties file briefs and the Hearing Committee files a report and recommendation as to sanction with the Board. In negotiated discipline matters, Hearing Committees conduct limited hearings on the petitions for negotiated discipline and file recommendations of approval or rejection of the petitions with the D.C. Court of Appeals.  Hearings are held in person in Courtroom II of the DC Court of Appeals or by Zoom Videoconference.  Proceedings are open to the public and livestreamed on the Hearing Committees’ YouTube channel.

Each Hearing Committee is composed of an attorney who serves as Chair, an attorney member, and a non-attorney member of the public.  Each attorney member must be a member of the District of Columbia Bar.   Hearing Committee members are appointed by the Board on Professional Responsibility and are eligible to serve two consecutive three-year terms.

You can review a calendar of upcoming hearings here and view them live on YouTube here.

If you have any questions about serving on a Hearing Committee, please email [email protected] or call 202-638-4290.