Washington Lawyer - July/August 2021 - 33

Strategic Planning and Risk Management. As the Bar
continues to meet its strategic priorities, from ensuring
operational excellence and fostering connections to
empowering individuals and providing public service, its
Executive Office is relying on the experience of its first
in-house general counsel, Erum Mirza. " Her experience
assessing and managing risk is an important addition to
the current leadership team and will help the Bar meet
the priorities of its new five-year strategic plan, " says D.C.
Bar CEO Robert J. Spagnoletti.
Shortly after she joined the Bar, Mirza guided an update
of the Bar's Whistleblower Policy and undertook a
comprehensive review of the D.C. Court of Appeals
Rules Governing the Bar and the D.C. Bar Bylaws. After
deconstructing several years of ad hoc amendments,
Mirza plans to produce a streamlined, unified
document " that is evergreen, user-friendly, flexible,
and unburdened by minutiae. "
Other Executive Office accomplishments include the
streamlining of the Mandatory Course compliance
process and the establishment of an electronically secure
way to disseminate confidential judicial evaluation results
to the necessary parties.
Commitment to Diversity
and Inclusion
Events throughout 2020 provided continual reminders of
the historic and ongoing inequities faced by people on
account of their gender, sexual preference, race, religion,
nationality, and disability. In response, the Bar undertook
several efforts to identify and address issues relating to
diversity, equity, and inclusion and their impact on its
staff and membership. The Executive Office established
the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, a group comprising
Bar staff that will guide efforts to ensure organizational
racial justice awareness and to create a racially sensitive
workplace.
Erum Z. Mirza
D.C. Bar General Counsel
Communities also facilitated the creation of the memberdriven
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Initiative, a working
group that collated and expanded upon digital resources
relating to best practices, contributed articles on the
topic for Communities newsletters, and held a half-day
educational summit. Prior to the traumatic events of 2020,
Communities had amended its mission statement to make
diversity, equity, and inclusion part of its core values.
The Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee
concluded work on proposed revisions to Rule 8.4
(Misconduct) and the comments section to address
discrimination and harassment related to the practice of
law. The proposed revisions were approved by the Board
of Governors and submitted to the D.C. Court of Appeals
for consideration.
Transforming for the Future
The pandemic has transformed various facets of the way
we work and live, and some of those changes are here to
stay. The D.C. Bar is committed to meet members where
they are in as close to real time as possible by investing in
novel, more targeted ways of delivering member value. In
the coming year, the Bar will increase its focus on digital
engagement to further optimize member experience and
deliver on its mission to serve its members so they can
serve the community.
Washington Lawyer - July/August 2021

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