Pursuant to court rule, lawyers may not earn interest on client trust funds. Under Rule X, the interest that would otherwise be retained by the financial institutions is forwarded to the Bar Foundation to be used to support the community's legal aid programs and such administration of justice projects as are approved by the Court of Appeals. The financial institution where the trust fund account is located is required to transmit these interest payments directly to the Bar Foundation. The determination of whether client funds are nominal or to be held for a short period of time rests in the sound judgment of each lawyer or law firm. The notice may be sent in care of the Bar Foundation.
Few lawyers decline to participate.
You are not required to have any client trust account until you begin to receive client funds. With the change in Rule 1.5 of the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct, fee advances from clients must, in most circumstances, be placed in a trust account. No, just the common-client trust account to which you deposit client funds of more than one client that are nominal in amount or to be held for a short period of time. Whether to set up a separate trust account is a matter between the lawyer and client. These terms are expressly not defined in the rule, and are left to the lawyer's sound discretion.