I admit I was caught flat-footed. The Washington, D.C., legislature passed a new Non-Profit Corporation Act that went into effect in January, and it was news to me. I'm the kind of guy who is supposed to know things like this, not just because I'm a non-profit lawyer in D.C., but also because I've been tracking legislation at all levels of government since I was in high school. Even a casual observer would have to be blind to miss something as significant as a complete rewrite of the state statute governing thousands of non-profit organizations, many of which are household names in America.

So, how did I miss this?

Part of the reason is that the overhaul of the non-profit corporation law was something of an afterthought to a broader effort to make D.C. a “friendlier” place for businesses. This business-centric approach to reform of the law meant the usual non-profit/charity actors I would have expected to hear from via weekly email updates and such were not in the forefront—they were playing catch-up once they realized the statutory train was leaving the station.