Peggy Otum takes helm of San Francisco Bar Association

Just a month into her term as president of the Bar Association of San Francisco, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr LLP partner Peggy O. Otum knows it might be a difficult year for the 154-year-old organization.

After a round of federal budget cuts, Otum said, the bar has seen government funding dry up for its Justice and Diversity Center, which offers pro bono services along with legal resources for immigrants and homeless people.

"When you're seeing a decline in government funding for these pro bono services, we have to figure out ways in the private sector to fill the gap, because the needs that JDC is meeting, they're not declining at all," Otum said.

Otum, who served on the organization's board and in a few leadership positions before taking the top role, said the bar association has also had to navigate what she sees as the Trump administration's tendency to threaten the independence of the court, including an executive order admonishing WilmerHale for hiring former special counsel Robert Mueller and revoking its security clearances.

"We've seen unprecedented attacks on the rule of law at the federal level," Otum said in an interview at WilmerHale's downtown San Francisco office. "This administration has expressed some hostility. My own law firm was the recipient of an executive order."

But lawyers already know the importance of judicial independence, Otum said. The bar association's real challenge will be showing the broader Bay Area public why it matters.

"Why should -- anyone who's watching all of this -- why should they care when judges are disparaged or attacked or threatened?" she asked.

She wants the association she leads to be "not just for lawyers to get together and tell each other how important they are," but she said it's proven difficult to engage the broader community. Despite outreach efforts, she said the organization's events are typically attended just by the legal community.

Otum, who practices environmental law, hopes the Law Day rally on May 1 will be the exception, and that it could help non-lawyers start to see bar association as a resource. The event will focus on oaths to uphold the Constitution taken not just by lawyers but by officials and military members. She said the event will "start to tie together how all of us are affected."

She's confident the public will get behind the message because she's already seen the legal community turn to the association, known as BASF, for support in recent years.

"I think that's always been perhaps an unspoken need that BASF has filled, but it's been really interesting to see our broader membership recognize now that pivotal role," Otum said.

That's something that first drew Otum to the association when she moved to the Bay Area in 2013 from Washington, D.C., where she'd practiced for 16 years after graduating from Howard University School of Law.

"BASF seems smaller [than the D.C. Bar Association]. It seems more intimate, frankly. We meet in person several times a year. It feels a little bit like there are more opportunities to engage on a personal level," Otum said.

After the move, Otum said the organization helped her build community and a professional network.

"I was a partner at a big law firm, I had two little kids, I moved from the East Coast and had to hit the ground running in rebuilding my legal professional network," Otum said. "A few people that I came to really trust said, 'You really should focus on BASF."

She joined the board in 2015 and joined leadership in 2023, first as secretary, then as treasurer and vice president.

In 2019, Otum moved from Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP to WilmerHale, where she now co-chairs the firm's energy, environment and natural resources practice group.

She recalled that, "23 years ago, I wanted a practice that really helped our clients through difficult circumstances. Environmental crisis response was one of the things that I started doing. I was an environmental regulatory lawyer, and I ended up having clients say over the course of a crisis event, 'You were really helpful.'"

Otum said much of her work is spent playing the role of intermediary between companies and regulatory bodies and breaking down the notion that there's a "bad actor" in a crisis.

"It often means being on travel weeks at a time. I have a family and that can be disruptive at times," Otum said. "But I really do believe that it gives that opportunity to be in the trenches with a client at a time when they need you the most."

While it's a difficult job, Otum said, she enjoys knowing she can use her role to help not just her clients, but everyone impacted by environmental crises.

"It's always felt like it's a practice that allows something relatively better to come out of some really difficult circumstances," Otum said.

As someone who's built a career on making the most out of bad situations, Otum said she feels prepared to lead the bar association through what could be a tricky chapter.

"When you have these challenging circumstances, part of what you get out of it is strengthening the bonds between the people that you're going through it with," Otum said.