Company Profile

Company Overview

The District of Columbia Bar assists the legal profession in maintaining high standards of the practice of law in the District of Columbia through the work of the Headquarters Office, including the D.C. Bar Pro Bono Program, the Office of Bar Counsel (OBC) and Board on Professional Responsibility (BPR).

The District of Columbia Bar was created in 1972 as a result of the Court Reorganization Act, which established the D.C. Court of Appeals. It is among the largest unified (mandatory) bars in the United States.

The Bar's mission is to provide service to the profession, the courts, and the community. D.C. Court of Appeals rules state that the purposes of the Bar are to aid the court in carrying on and improving the administration of justice; to foster and maintain high ideals of integrity, learning, competence in public service, and high standards of conduct; to safeguard the proper professional interest of the members of the Bar; to encourage the formation and activities of volunteer bar associations; to provide a forum for and to publish information relating to the discussion of subjects pertaining to the practice of law, the science of jurisprudence and law reform, and the relations of the Bar to the public; and to carry on a continuing program of legal research and education and make reports and recommendations in the technical fields of substantive law, practice and procedure, so that the public responsibility of the legal professional is more effectively discharged.