Washington Lawyer July/August 2026
By Jeremy Conrad
Photos by Patrice Gilbert Photography
From an early age, Diane Seltzer knew that she wanted to be an attorney. "Understanding how people get along with each other and what makes people behave in certain ways was interesting to me. I also loved to argue and write," she says.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Seltzer grew up in the New York City metro region and graduated from Tufts University with a sociology degree. She arrived in the District of Columbia to study at American University Washington College of Law, where she was on the law review, and never left the area.
After graduating from law school in 1991, Seltzer clerked for Judges Frederick C. Wright III, John P. Corderman, and Daniel Moylan of the Circuit Court for Washington County, Maryland. The economic recession of the time interfered with her plans to become a prosecutor. Seltzer worked at a few small firms before launching in 1997 her own practice, the Seltzer Law Firm, where she has worked on employment law matters exclusively ever since.
Seltzer's sociology background influenced her interest in negotiating resolutions. "I came up as a lawyer through the beginning and the development of ADR [alternative dispute resolution] and mediation," she says. "Early in my career, discussing settlement was looked at as weakness, but luckily it wasn't too long before that changed to an understanding that negotiation doesn't mean you are scared of a court or a fight, but a sign that you are reasonable and practical." She represented the employee in the first mediation before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) in 1999. (Yes, the case settled, Seltzer notes with a smile.) Seltzer was even featured in EEOC's promotion of its newly launched mediation program.
As an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law from 2003 to 2021, Seltzer taught employment law courses to upper-level JD candidates. She also developed and taught the course Human Resources Compliance for the school's Master of Legal Studies program.
Seltzer has served the D.C. Bar in a variety of capacities, including as Board of Governors secretary from 2020 to 2021, Board member since 2021, and three-time chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee. She has also served on other committees, including Strategic Planning, Screening, Communities, and Budget.
Prior to being sworn in as the Bar's 55th president in June, Seltzer sat down with Washington Lawyer to discuss her goals for her presidency, access to justice needs, and defense of the rule of law.
You were elected by an overwhelming majority in a campaign that drew a record number of voters. How does this impact your presidency?
It was the thrill of a lifetime — I am not going to downplay that. [So many] people, to this day, come up to me and say, "I voted for you," or they tell me that they had never voted before until [that] election … It was a real joy for me seeing members so excited and so involved in the election. Members have issues that matter to them, and that got them to do a lot of work to get the result they wanted.
The biggest thing for me was that people got energized and engaged. People volunteered to get involved. I don't see that as carte blanche, though. Ninety-one percent of the voters voted for me, but nine percent didn't, and their issues matter, too. I'm interested in focusing on the positive aspects, and I love that there are a lot of people who want me in this role and have confidence that I will be a good leader. I've been deeply involved with the Bar for many years in leadership and committee member capacities, so I'm not coming in cold.
I think that people saw my experience, my commitment, and my understanding of the Bar and felt that my leadership made sense, which isn't something I take for granted. Being elected Bar president — and really the election itself — was an unforgettable experience, and it has 100 percent changed me both professionally and personally. I want to show my gratitude for that by doing the best job I can do and not disappoint anybody.
How will you build on the interest and engagement generated by your campaign?
I'm asking everyone who thought the election was important and was energetic in their involvement to take that energy and continue to make a difference. I know we are all tired. These are such challenging, exhausting, and controversial times, especially to be a lawyer, let alone one in D.C., but I also think that actively working toward goals, having a purpose — those are healthy and grounding responses to crisis and chaos.
The Bar supports members who want to have a positive impact on their community in a number of ways. We offer programming and CLEs that enable them to develop professionally, which then helps them meet their community's access to justice needs. We help build the capacity of our members and empower them to not only serve and lead within our Bar, but also to help them support or work with voluntary and affinity bars that do things that we as a mandatory bar don't or can't. We provide them with access to tools, information, and resources to maximize their benefit to the community.
I would like for the D.C. Bar to be a clearinghouse for those interested in volunteering. The Pro Bono Center offers many kinds of opportunities to provide legal assistance, but there are services it doesn't provide that are offered by organizations we work with in the District and across the country. We can partner with those [organizations] or direct members to them if they are interested in a particular issue or have specific skills or expertise to offer.
Partnering with voluntary and affinity bars to offer volunteer services can be useful to our community and keep members active and engaged. It can also help members make contact with the inspirational people involved in providing legal services in the District. This is a city of rock stars, with an incredible community of attorneys who deserve our support and whose intelligence, energy, and empathy are a source of inspiration. The Bar is a big part of that, and I want to keep it going. I want that talent to be rewarded and appreciated.
What groups within the Bar do you feel might be activated to address the increasing need for legal services, and how will you support them?
Early career attorneys bring an enormous amount of energy and potential, and I want to let them know that they don't have to wait for years before they can play a role in the Bar, or in the city. There are many opportunities for people who are interested in leadership to advance quickly within the Bar. All they need is an interest in service and something they care about.
It's important to pay attention to the ideas of the younger generations, and we can't take the attitude that the way we have done things is necessarily the way things should always be done. Technology, including AI of course, has introduced many changes to how we work, and the profession will require creative thinking and an openness to new approaches. Technology can help provide access to opportunities for members in a way that accommodates economies of scale and can function well with an organization like ours, which has so many [members located] all around the world.
I also see that law students and early career lawyers want to learn from us. After I won the election, many [of them] reached out [for] career advice or to meet for coffee and hear about my path. Their interest in meeting led me to talk with the Bar about conducting a sort of coffee talk with the Bar president.
I also intend to reach out to solo and small firm lawyers and let them know how the Bar can provide support, development, and empowerment. I am a solo attorney, and I have two children who grew up with a mom who always worked and did volunteer work for the Bar, their schools, and our community. I was even a Montgomery County [Maryland] volunteer EMT for a time. I am not the only solo practitioner who is a leader in this Bar or who does different kinds of volunteer work, but I'd like to serve as an example of what you can do if the organization is important and interesting to you.
Our Bar isn't homogenous, neither demographically nor in terms of personal backgrounds and practice environments. It isn't an organization in which only some types belong … quite the opposite, and that is one reason why I, personally, became more active, starting with my involvement with the CLE Committee.
I want to be sure that solo and small firm practitioners don't feel forgotten, or that their needs aren't being considered. To that end, I want to build on some of the work Sadina Montani initiated during her Bar presidency leveraging artificial intelligence. I'd like to ensure that the technological playing field is level, and that solos and small firms have access to AI platforms to support their practices.
I already have begun discussions with Bar leadership to explore the possibility of partnering with paid AI platform providers the same way that we work to make disability or malpractice insurance affordable and available for all members. AI platform subscriptions may not be available and/or affordable to many solo or small firm practitioners today, but by negotiating as an organization, we may be able to ensure that these members also have access to affordable, cutting-edge technology.
Protecting the rule of law was a major theme of your campaign. How do you intend to do so during your presidency?
Protecting the rule of law is just as important and necessary today as it was when I was talking about it last year. It's going to remain a critical issue for a long time to come. We aren't nearly out of the woods — it's a hundred miles into them, and a hundred miles out. We can't anticipate every attack on the rule of law that we will have to face. Already, there have been threats that I never would have dreamt of, but defending the rule of law is and will remain my top priority.
This is another area in which the Bar can coordinate efforts by directing members to opportunities to volunteer or get involved in activities and organizations. Lawyers and judges are the guardrails and have the capacity to speak in support of the rule of law by commenting on proposed rules, signing amicus briefs, supporting free and safe elections, and supporting the judiciary. The Bar can inform and empower those who want to speak out in support of the rule of law, and that's what my term will be about.
I will also develop our relationship with the federal bench here in D.C. and maintain the deep relationship we already have with the Superior Court and Court of Appeals, so that judges know that we are their partners in protecting the legal profession and ensuring that the rule of law is upheld. Judges need to feel safe writing opinions, knowing that they won't face retaliation. They need to feel safe in their homes and in their communities. The bar and the bench need to support each other, symbolically, and I will be exploring what that means, in practical terms, over the course of my presidency.
The important thing is that lawyers are fighters. We're advocates. We're built for this. We chose this profession to help, to advocate, and to provide people with access to justice the best way we know how. So, today, democracy and the rule of law are our clients, but it will take the same basic skills … the same persistence and demands for due process and justice that define how we represent people and institutions every day.
D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad is an attorney who has spent much of the past decade writing about the legal profession. Previously he practiced in immigration law and criminal defense.
