The Disciplinary Board has issued its Annual Report for 2025. Below are a few highlights.
The Board held four meetings in 2025. At its meetings, the Board adjudicated seventeen matters. The matters consisted of eleven discipline cases and six reinstatements. In 2025, the Supreme Court issued orders in twelve adjudicated matters, adopting the Board’s recommendation in ten of those.
In 2025, there were 149 serving Hearing Committee members – forty-nine in District I (Philadelphia), thirty-one in District II (suburban Philadelphia), twenty-three in District III (central and northeastern PA), and forty-six in District IV (western PA). Hearing Committee members review recommended disposition of complaints as offered by the Office of Disciplinary Counsel, conduct disciplinary and reinstatement hearings, either as a three-member panel or single designated member, and prepare written reports and recommendations to the Board following disciplinary and reinstatement proceedings.
Thirty-six Petitions for Discipline and thirty Joint Petitions in Support of Discipline on Consent were filed in 2025, along with one petition for emergency temporary suspension and two contempt petitions. Nine Petitions for Reinstatement were filed, of which five were granted and one denied. Eighty-four other documents seeking return to active status were filed. In 2025, 506 attorneys were reinstated from inactive, retired, or administrative suspension status.
The following types of discipline were imposed:
- Informal Admonition - 40
- Private Reprimand - 0
- Public Reprimand - 12
- Probation Modification - 1
- Disability Inactive Pa.R.D.E. 301 - 5
- Public Censure - 0
- Temporary Suspension - 12
- Suspension - 19
- Disbarment - 14
In all, 72,439 attorneys completed their registration before the deadline for administrative suspension. This represented 99.58% of eligible attorneys. For failing to complete their registration and pay the annual fee, 317 attorneys were administratively suspended. In 2025, 2,137 attorneys were newly admitted. Sixty retired attorneys continue to serve in emeritus status, providing pro bono service with legal aid organizations, up from forty-eight in 2024.
In 2025, 47,249 attorneys were on Active status and located in Pennsylvania with 17,532 Active out of state, 1,817 Inactive in Pennsylvania, and 7,916 Inactive out of state. There were another 509 in other limited practice roles (Emeritus, In-House Corporate Legal Counsel, Defender or Legal Services Attorney, or Foreign Legal Consultant). Last year, 1,606 were retired, and 463 were on administrative suspension for failure to pay registration fees or complete CLE requirements.
Using Webex video conferencing for all parties to meet, along with the YouTube platform for livestreaming, the Board conducted and streamed to the public thirty-five hearings, seven oral arguments, and fourteen public reprimands. In total, eighty days of proceedings were live-streamed in 2025, accounting for 279 hours of live-streaming. Additionally, more than 30,300 streams were initiated, accounting for 17,791 cumulative viewing hours of proceedings.
In 2025, roughly 3.5 million users visited the Board’s website where sixty-eight news articles on case decisions and eleven news articles on conservatorships were posted.
The annual assessment for Active attorneys for the 2025-2026 registration year is $275 which is allocated as follows: $195 to the Disciplinary Board, $50 to the Pennsylvania Lawyers Fund for Client Security, and $30 to the IOLTA Board.
As of December 31, 2025, 639 matters involving taxed expenses and/or administrative fees remained outstanding with a balance of $2,033,641.85 owed to the Disciplinary Board.
The Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC) reported 5,002 opened and 5,002 cases resolved. This was the first year in history that either figure reached the five thousand mark. Disciplinary Counsel participated in thirty-five disciplinary and reinstatement hearings (amounting to fifty-nine days) and seven oral arguments before the Disciplinary Board. This was the highest number of hearing days in the last ten years. One disciplinary hearing involving twelve separate complaints against a single Respondent lasted for eleven days – the longest matter in recent memory.
Disciplinary Counsel also assisted in facilitating the refund of fees to a client in six cases, return of a file, documentation, or other property from an attorney to the client in seven; reestablishing communication between a client and the attorney in forty-six; forward movement in twelve stagnant matters; appropriate updates to required forms, contact information, or documents used in the practice of law in seventeen; and educating an attorney short of a letter of education or concern twenty-one times.
ODC opened twelve conservatorship matters and was itself appointed conservator in two of those matters. Five conservatorships concluded; fifteen remain open.
Read the full 2025 Annual Report here.