David B. Isbell

David Isbell commenced his career as a litigator, but in recent years his practice has mainly been in the field of professional responsibility, providing advice on ethical and related matters not only to the firm but also to other law firms and individual lawyers.  Mr. Isbell was chair of the firm’s Professional Responsibility Committee from 1982 until 1998, when he acquired senior status.  Since then he has devoted his time principally to law school teaching and to two of the philanthropic organizations listed under Professional and Community Activities, below, but he continues to be called on from time to time for professional responsibility advice and/or representation to other lawyers and law firms.

Representative Matters

• Preparation of a report and recommendations to the Executive Office of the Mayor of the District of Columbia regarding the attorney-client relationship between the Office of Corporation Counsel (now the Office of the Attorney General) and the Child and Family Services Agency.
• Advice to a major law firm regarding problems relating to questionable conduct of a former partner.
• Advice to a smaller law firm regarding a dispute between two clients of the firm.
• Advice to another law firm about a criminal representation that was being challenged by the prosecutor’s office as involving a conflict of interest.
• Advice to a very large non-profit organization that has a group of lawyers who represent the organization in cause cases and also represents third parties in such cases, regarding challenges that had been made by a disgruntled staff lawyer as to the ethical propriety of the whole legal operation.  This representation involved, inter alia, securing favorable opinions from both the DC Bar Legal Ethics Committee and the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, as well as persuading the Office of Bar Counsel that a complaint that had been made by the disgruntled staff lawyer was without substance.

Previous Experience

• United States Commission on Civil Rights, Assistant Director (1969-1971)

Honors and Rankings

• Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation (2009)
• District of Columbia Bar, Thurgood Marshall Award, “In recognition of his exemplary career dedicated to service in the public interest which has made a significant difference in the quality of American Justice” (2006)
• Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights and Urban affairs, Wiley A. Branton Award (together with wife Florence B. Isbell), “For their lifetime commitment to the cause of Civil Rights” (2001)

Pro Bono

• The report and recommendations to the Executive Office of the Mayor, described under Representative Matters, above, was a pro bono matter.
•  Advice on professional responsibility issues to several non-profit organizations.

Memberships and Affiliations

• The District of Columbia Bar, President (1983-84)
• ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, Chair (1991-94)
• The DC Bar in the ABA House of Delegates, Representative (1982-92)
• Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, Chair (1992-2005)
• National Board of Directors, American Civil Liberties Union, Member (1962-92)
• Disability Rights Council of the Washington Metropolitan Area, Board Member and Treasurer (1992-2005)
• University of Virginia School of Law, Adjunct Professor (1961-present)
• Georgetown University Law Center, Adjunct Professor (1996-present)

Publications and Speeches

• "District of Columbia Legal Ethics: A Summary of the Law of Lawyering in the District of Columbia," (June 2007), Author