Hon. Sidney A. Butcher Appointed to ABA IOLTA Commission

Hon. Sidney A. Butcher, board member and immediate past board chair of the Maryland Legal Services Corporation and associate judge with the District Court for Anne Arundel County, has been appointed to serve on the American Bar Association Commission on Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts.

The Commission was created in 1986 and consists of nine members from across the country appointed by the president of the ABA. The Commission collects, maintains, analyzes, and distributes information on programs involving IOLTA revenue, which is a key source of funding for civil legal aid for low-income residents across the United States. The Commission makes recommendations for ABA policy on IOLTA, maintains liaisons with state IOLTA programs and the National Association of IOLTA Programs, and oversees the IOLTA Clearinghouse, which provides information, materials, and technical assistance on IOLTA program design and operation.

Judge Butcher joined MLSC’s board in 2016 and served as chair from 2021 to 2023. He has served as a member of Maryland State Bar Association’s Board of Governors, as a member of the Executive Council of the Anne Arundel Bar Association, and as president of the Monumental City Bar Association.

Judge Butcher is a member of the ABA House of Delegates and the Executive Committee for the ABA Criminal Justice Section Council. In 2023, he received the Maryland Bar Foundation’s 2023 Legal Excellence Award for Advancement of Public Understanding of the Law. Judge Butcher is a graduate of Florida A&M University and the University of Kansas School of Law.

The mission of MLSC is to ensure low-income Marylanders have access to stable, efficient and effective civil legal assistance through the distribution of funds to nonprofit legal services organizations. MLSC administers Maryland’s IOLTA program and other funds for civil legal services, as well as Maryland’s newly created Access to Counsel in Evictions program. Maryland was the fourth state in the country to establish an IOLTA program to fund civil legal aid in 1982.