ABA Day 2026: The legal profession in action
From March 24 to 26, the legal profession will gather in Washington, D.C., for ABA Day, the American Bar Association’s largest annual associationwide advocacy event. It is a national campaign of coordinated advocacy that engages attorneys, law students and advocates from every corner of the legal community.
While hundreds of legal professionals will gather in person on Capitol Hill during the three-day event, the ABA’s Governmental Affairs Office has expanded advocacy training and engagement opportunities to offer other robust avenues for lawyers, law students and advocates to lend their voices to ABA Day, even if their schedules do not allow in-person engagement. There are opportunities to participate online or in home districts, thereby empowering participants to deliver a unified message on issues of critical importance to the legal profession and the rule of law.
ABA Day events launch at 4 p.m. Eastern time on March 10, when the ABA’s Governmental Affairs Office offers online training on this year’s priority issues and time for questions. Join the Zoom meeting. Meeting ID: 966 6989 2586. Passcode: 319597. No registration required.
This training session will be recorded and posted on the ABA Day site, so advocates can watch it on demand. Also available will be a series of short, prerecorded training videos on topics such as how to lead a Hill meeting, set up a meeting, host a site visit and advocate online using the ABA’s digital tools.
Starting March 24, ABA Day in Washington will bring together ABA leaders, state and local bar leaders, and attorneys from across the country to advocate on Capitol Hill on issues important to the legal profession. The schedule includes briefings, meetings and receptions with congressional leaders. Registration for ABA on the Hill is open until March 24.
Our primary advocacy issues were selected by the ABA Day in Washington planning committee, chaired by Palmer Gene Vance II and the Governmental Affairs Office. On the Hill, ABA participants will advocate on:
• Access to legal services. Access to justice remains one of the ABA’s core principles. The Legal Services Corp., which supports civil legal service programs for low-income and other eligible individuals nationwide, increases that access, but it needs more funding to meet the growing calls for legal help. Despite competing fiscal demands on the Hill, ABA Day advocates will urge Congress to increase the LSC’s funding, thereby helping care for their constituents at home, especially in vulnerable populations.
Funding Defender Legal Services is another example of increasing access to justice. After years of budget shortfalls, Congress has fully funded the Defender Legal Services office for fiscal year 2026, providing representation to those unable to hire an attorney in federal criminal cases. This funding is a critical turning point as the Defender Legal Services office works to end a two-year hiring freeze and ensures that Criminal Justice Act panel attorneys are paid on time. During ABA Day, advocates can thank their representatives for their support and emphasize that continued support for fiscal year 2027 appropriations and consistent, long-term funding is essential to meeting the constitutional right to counsel.
• Judicial security and judicial vacancies. In November, the U.S. Senate passed, by unanimous consent, critical bipartisan legislation to establish a State Judicial Threat Intelligence and Resource Center within existing State Justice Institutes. On ABA Day, we will urge members of the U.S. House of Representatives to do the same, thereby taking an important step toward enhancing judicial security for state judges. To address growing caseloads in federal courts, we will also urge Congress to authorize more district and circuit court judgeships consistent with the Judicial Conference recommendations to ensure timely resolution of cases and preserve public confidence in our judiciary.
• Enacting the Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act. This bill would end a Federal Bureau of Prisons practice that requires lawyers and their incarcerated clients to agree to having their email exchanges read as a condition of using the prisons’ digital network. The bill would do this by prohibiting such monitoring and establishing a process under which legitimate law enforcement interests can access messages not subject to the attorney-client privilege. This would provide email communication between attorneys and their clients with the same confidentiality protections currently given to phone, mail and in-person visits. Until then, prisoners’ Sixth Amendment right to the effective assistance of counsel remains in jeopardy.
On March 31, the ABA Day Online live broadcast will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time with a 90-minute program. Participants will hear from ABA leaders and the ABA Day planning committee and receive briefings on each of the ABA Day advocacy priorities. During and after the broadcast, advocates can send messages to Congress, make calls and record short video stories through the ABA’s advocacy portal at AmericanBar.quorum.us/abaday.
To register and see details on the ABA Day Online live broadcast, visit AmBar.org/abaday.
In addition to the primary issues we will advance on Capitol Hill, members who take part in the ABA Day Online effort will also focus on:
• Removing barriers to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. The U.S. Department of Education adopted new regulations in October that give the Education Department secretary sweeping powers to disqualify employers from the PSLF program based on what it independently deems “criminal” activity. Also, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted last summer, included a provision that, unless a borrower chooses a different repayment plan, the department will enter new graduates into a plan under which payments will not be eligible for PSLF purposes.
The Education Department also has a growing backlog of PSLF cases. Each of these challenges represents a barrier to candidates accessing public service loan forgiveness and could have profound effects on attorneys working in eligible public service jobs. We will discuss when and how best to engage on these issues during the ABA Day online program.
ABA Day is also an opportunity to remind policymakers that the ABA has experts who can serve as a nonpartisan resource for education and information as they consider legislation involving complex emerging issues, such as developments in artificial intelligence. We can also collect congressional insights into their issues of interest and how the ABA can best inform AI legislation and other legislation with legal impacts from its inception.
After ABA Day in Washington, Congress will be on recess from March 30 to April 10. That is when our focus will pivot to ABA Day at Home to carry the torch. Advocates will meet with lawmakers in their local and state offices, invite them to visit LSC grantee offices and other judicial sites, and continue sending messages through the ABA’s advocacy portal.
Whether in person in Washington, D.C., home districts or online, each interaction helps build long-term relationships that keep the legal profession’s priorities on the congressional radar year-round.
ABA Day 2026 will prove once again that when the legal profession speaks, it speaks with clarity, unity and purpose. From first-time advocates to experienced participants, each engaged member plays a role in advancing access to justice and protecting our legal system, and we look forward to unifying our collective voices into action during ABA Day 2026.
This report is written by the ABA Governmental Affairs Office and discusses advocacy efforts by the ABA relating to issues being addressed by Congress and the executive branch of the U.S. government. Follow us on social media platforms @ABAGrassroots to learn more about significant legislative and governmental developments of interest to the ABA as they happen.
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