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Crowell & Moring is proud to announce that Sadina Montani was elected president-elect of the D.C. Bar for the 2024-2025 term.
Montani will assume office on July 1 and serve in that post for one year before becoming the Bar’s 54th president in 2025. Created in 1972, the D.C. Bar is the largest unified bar in the United States, providing the oversight structure needed to maintain the profession’s ethical standards and Rules of Professional Conduct. It has 100,000 members in all 50 states and more than 80 countries.
“We are thrilled that the members of the D.C. Bar recognized Sadina Montani’s legal excellence, personal integrity, and extensive record of service to the D.C. legal community, and selected her as the Bar’s next president,” said Philip T. Inglima, chair of Crowell & Moring. “Sadina will be a brilliant leader of the D.C. Bar, and will advance significantly the legal profession and its positive impact on our nation’s capital.”
Montani, a partner in Crowell’s Labor & Employment Group, has held numerous voluntary leadership positions with bar organizations, legal services providers and community nonprofits. She was president of the Women’s Bar Association of the District of Columbia (WBA) for the 2020-21 bar year, during which she focused on allyship and the association’s advocacy in support of its membership and those interests central to the association’s mission.
“I am honored to have been elected by the D.C. Bar membership to serve as president-elect,” said Montani, pledging to engage members across practices, industries, and experience levels to address the ways the global pandemic has affected the practice of law. “I am confident the future of the Bar is bright, and am committed to making a positive impact on our legal community. I am particularly eager to support and lift up our voluntary Bar associations and D.C. Bar Communities.”
Montani will become the third Crowell partner to be D.C. Bar president. Susan M. “Susie” Hoffman served as president 2019-20 and former partner Andrew H. Marks served from 1998-99.
As the WBA’s immediate past president, Montani served as chair of the association’s Advocacy Committee. In that role, she led the association’s work on an amicus brief submitted before the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in collaboration with the the National Association of Women Lawyers and Women Lawyers on Guard. The brief was supported by approximately 30 additional organizations.
Montani has been active in the D.C. Bar for more than a decade. She was part of the first cohort of the D.C. Bar’s John Payton Leadership Academy in 2013. She has chaired the Nominations Committee and served on the Leadership Development and Screening Committees.
Montani plans to work to make a positive impact on Washington’s legal community by focusing on the many significant ways that the legal industry and the practice of law have been impacted by the global pandemic. She plans to open and encourage a robust dialogue about how the bar can preserve the best of the pre-pandemic, apprentice-style legal training while recognizing the fundamental shifts that the pandemic created, including because of hybrid and remote work.
Montani also serves as pro bono counsel for a number of nonprofit organizations that focus on education, the environment, and social services. In 2019, she was awarded the “Tom Nees Award for Exceptional Service” by Community of Hope – a nonprofit organization pursuing a mission to aid low-income families experiencing homelessness and struggling with health care needs – in recognition of her long-standing, deeply impactful service to the women, men, and children who turn to Community of Hope for help.
In addition, Montani is an experienced nonprofit board member and currently serves as a board member, governance committee chair, and chief governance officer of Ayuda, a non-profit providing legal, social, and language services to help low-income immigrants in the D.C. community. She recently stepped down from board service for the Greater D.C. Diaper Bank, for which she served beginning in 2017 as a board member, governance committee chair, and board chair.
At Crowell, Montani serves as co-chair of Crowell’s Women’s Leadership Initiative, as a member of Crowell’s Technology Innovation Committee, and on the Steering Committee of Crowell’s Labor & Employment Group. Her practice focuses on advising all types of employers on complex compliance issues. She conducts and guides clients through internal investigations and has led investigations into—and helped clients manage—sensitive and high-level reports of sexual harassment. Montani represents employers in state and federal courts and before various administrative agencies, defending claims of race, sex, disability, and age discrimination.
Additionally, Crowell & Moring partner Daniel W. Wolff has been elected to the steering committee of the D.C. Bar’s Administrative Law and Agency Practice Community, counsel Matthew Cohen has been elected to the District of Columbia Affairs Community Steering Committee, and associate Alicia Clausen has been elected to the Litigation Community Steering Committee.
About Crowell & Moring LLP
Crowell & Moring is an international law firm with operations in the United States, Europe, MENA, and Asia. Drawing on significant government, business, industry, and legal experience, the firm helps clients capitalize on opportunities and provides creative solutions to complex litigation and arbitration, regulatory and policy, and corporate and transactional issues. The firm is consistently recognized for its commitment to pro bono service, as well as its programs and initiatives to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion.
