D.C. Court of Appeals Amends Bar Rules on Use of License Fees

June 12, 2025

On June 10 the D.C. Court of Appeals announced amendments to Rule II, Section 4 of the Rules Governing the D.C. Bar regarding the appropriate use of member license fees. The D.C. Bar Board of Governors proposed the revisions in February 2025, seeking to add clarifying language that codifies the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1990 standard in Keller v. State Bar of California for determining which activities integrated bars may fund with mandatory license fees.

The new language states: “License fees may be used by the D.C. Bar in furtherance of the Purposes set forth in Rule I, Section 2, provided that the activities are germane to regulating the legal profession or improving the quality of legal services.”

In its proposal, the Bar expressed the need to be transparent with members and streamline D.C. Bar processes relating to the current segregation of license fee and non-license fee activities. For example, the revised rule will alleviate the administrative burden of “charging” non-license fee cost centers for services provided by the D.C. Bar, such as IT, finance, and human resources, some of which are appropriately funded by license fees under Keller.

The court received no public comments on the board’s proposal, and the amendments go into effect 60 days after the issuance of the order.