Andrea Ferster Elected President-elect of D.C. Bar

Updated 4:02 p.m.

Washington solo practitioner Andrea Ferster was elected president-elect of the D.C. Bar for the 2012-13 term.

Ferster will take over from Covington & Burling partner Thomas Williamson Jr., who in turn will replace current D.C. Bar president Darrell Mottley, a principal shareholder at Banner & Witcoff.

Ferster, of the Law Offices of Andrea C. Ferster, defeated Department of Justice attorney Bridget Bailey Lipscomb by more than 1,300 votes. Ferster currently serves on the D.C. Bar Board of Governors and is a former treasurer. She focuses her practice on land use, historic preservation, transportation policy and tax-exempt organizations.

In an interview, Ferster said she was honored and humbled to be joining the leadership team. “My highest priority as a candidate was the crisis that we have here in D.C. regarding funding for civil legal services,” Ferster said. “The need is so great and the resources are so limited.”

Daniel Schumack of Schumack Ryals and Lily M. Garcia of the Clearspire Law Company were elected secretary and treasurer, respectively. Both terms are for one year. Sosan Low Block, Jeffrey S. Gutman, Marianela Peralta, Gregory Smith, Vytas Vergeer and Theodore Chuang were elected to the Board of Governors. Newly elected officers will be sworn in on June 19.

The Bar reported a 9.6 percent return of the almost 72,000 ballots mailed out. That is a decline from last year, when 12.3 percent voted.