Paul Hastings associate Brad Bondi ran a star-crossed marketing campaign for DC Bar president and got predictably shellacked. In regular instances, the Biglaw associate operating a marketing campaign targeted on mundane priorities like CLE reform would’ve been an excellent candidate. However his sister is busy flouting the Constitution and operating a Justice Division in open conflict with the nation’s bar associations. Even when the presidency of the DC Bar doesn’t carry authority over the establishment’s skilled disciplinary operate, the optics of placing Pam Bondi’s brother atop the entity had been at all times dangerous.
And that’s why he misplaced roughly 91%-9%.
Like a correct Biglaw associate, he took to LinkedIn to post a concession message.
The publish begins by hitting the notes that all of us got here to count on of a concession — a minimum of earlier than January 6 — noting that “though I didn’t prevail, I stand with a coronary heart stuffed with gratitude” earlier than providing, in a concluding paragraph, to “recommit to a Bar that lifts us all” with a thanks to supporters. Had he restricted his message to those two paragraphs, he’d have a pleasant little ship off message.
However he didn’t.
As an alternative, I’m disgusted by how rabid partisans lurched this election into the political gutter, turning an expert marketing campaign into baseless assaults, id politics, and partisan recrimination. By no means earlier than has a DC Bar election been leveraged alongside partisan traces on this manner, an express name for members to vote based mostly not on what’s greatest for the establishment however based on their political affiliations. Their techniques, which included smearing me over my household and peddling conspiracies about my intentions, weren’t simply an assault on my integrity however on the D.C. Bar’s very mission.
Oh, man, Brad. Discretion is the higher a part of valor, buddy. It’s posts like this that rework what ought to be an Above the Regulation story about lawyerly inside baseball into something the Huffington Post covers. The Streisand Effect is actual!
It additionally reveals that Bondi by no means understood the basic drawback along with his candidacy. Bar associations are frontline establishments for shielding the rule of regulation. They’re the organs issuing condemnations when the White House denigrates legal institutions and it’s why the administration floats threats against bar associations. Put apart any “conspiracies” that the DC Bar president might shut down disciplinary inquires into the following technology of Huge(ger) Lie legal professionals, the DC Bar president is, by advantage of accelerating assaults on the rule of regulation, a political job proper now.
And, extra to the purpose, it’s a political job that requires somebody who won’t hesitate for a second to name out Pam Bondi for trampling on due course of. Or, hell, put apart proactively criticizing the administration, the president wants to have the ability to rise up for legal professionals when the White Home inevitably places the bar affiliation on blast for disbarring Rudy or no matter. Prefer it or not, Trump has put legal professionals on the opposite facet of the “v” and the presidency race of any bar affiliation at this second is about electing a spokesperson prepared to sentence the administration.
Early on on this marketing campaign, we advised that Brad Bondi’s solely actual hope on this race was to say he’s at all times been a brat to his sister and gained’t cease now. That he’s nonetheless characterizing the idea of calling out the Justice Division’s lawlessness as “smearing” his household, proves he by no means grasped the problem.
However by giving in to those partisan impulses, we danger a endless cycle of political strong-arming, the place each election turns into a proxy for nationwide divides, and the Bar’s unity is fractured past restore. I warning that the Bar could by no means recuperate from this politicization — a tragedy that may erode its capability to function a house for all members, changing impartiality with ideological litmus exams that alienate and divide. We’ve seen different establishments fall to this temptation, shedding their credibility and objective. The Bar should not observe that path.
“We’ve seen different establishments fall to this temptation”… you imply like rebranding the Justice Department as Trump’s personal law firm? Yeah, that’s form of how the DC Bar received up to now. It would suck, however so long as “warrantless roundups to promote individuals to El Salvadoran slave camps” is a partisan place, then a bar affiliation election goes to be partisan.
Championing the “apolitical” is simply fancy enabling. It’s about shaming gullible individuals to take themselves out of the sport when the stakes are at their highest. A greater take may be that the bar affiliation must be on the forefront of pushing again in opposition to an administration turning the rule of regulation right into a partisan challenge. Suggesting that legal professionals ought to withdraw from that struggle to hunker down as docile bullshit receptacles amassing CLE credit and evaluating books of enterprise over cocktails is, in reality, very political.
And DC Bar members appeared to agree 9-to-1. It’s one factor to say voters missed the purpose in a detailed election, however when it’s a decimation it’s most likely value asking if perhaps you’re the one who missed the important thing level.
Brad Bondi, Pam Bondi’s Brother, Loses Election And Says ‘Rabid Partisans’ Were ‘Smearing Me’ [Huffington Post]
Earlier: Pam Bondi’s Brother Decimated In D.C. Bar Race
Joe Patrice is a senior editor at Above the Regulation and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Be happy to email any ideas, questions, or feedback. Comply with him on Twitter or Bluesky if you happen to’re fascinated by regulation, politics, and a wholesome dose of faculty sports activities information. Joe additionally serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.
