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Bar association

 
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: bar association
 
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Group of lawyers organized primarily to deal with issues affecting the legal profession. In general, they are concerned with furthering the interests of lawyers through advocating reforms in the legal system, sponsoring research projects, and regulating professional standards. Bar associations sometimes administer the examinations required for admission to practice law. The largest U.S. bar association is the American Bar Assn.

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Law Encyclopedia: Bar Association
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This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.

An organization of lawyers established to promote professional competence, enforce standards of ethical conduct, and encourage a spirit of public service among members of the legal profession.

The mission of a bar association is frequently described in the words of Roscoe Pound, legal scholar and dean of Harvard Law School from 1916 to 1936: "[T]o promote and maintain the practice of law as a profession, that is, as a learned art pursued in the spirit of a public service — in the spirit of a service of furthering the administration of justice through and according to law."

Bar associations accomplish these objectives by offering continuing education for lawyers in the form of publications and seminars. This education includes instruction on recent developments in the law and in managing a law practice successfully as a business. Bar associations encourage members to offer pro bono legal services (to provide legal services at no cost to members of society who cannot afford them). Bar associations develop guidelines and rules relating to ethics and professional responsibility and enforce sanctions for violation of rules governing lawyer conduct. Bar associations also offer attorneys the opportunity to meet socially to discuss employment prospects and legal theories.

The International Bar Association, based in London, is for lawyers and law firms involved in the practice of international law. In the United States, bar associations exist on the national, state, and local levels. Examples are the American Bar Association (ABA) and the Federal Bar Association on the national level, the New Jersey State Bar Association and the Florida Bar Association on the state level, and the New York City Bar Association on the local level. Some law schools have what they call student bar associations for the student body as a whole, and distinct, smaller bar associations for students with a common ethnic background or an interest in a specific area of practice.

In thirty-one states, membership in the state bar association is mandatory for those licensed to practice law. In the remaining nineteen states, membership in the state bar association is voluntary. When lawyers are required to join the bar in order to practice law, the bar is said to be integrated, or unified. Integration is generally accomplished by the enactment of a statute giving the highest court of the state the authority to integrate the bar, or by rule of that court in the exercise of its inherent power. In effect, lawyers are not free to resign from an integrated bar, because by doing so, they lose the privilege to practice law.

The modern U.S. bar association traces its beginnings to the midnineteenth century. At that time, the practice of law was largely unregulated. People in need of legal services had no assurance that the lawyers they hired had had even minimum legal training. To address this situation, leaders of the legal profession began to organize self-governing bar associations to establish standards of education and of professional conduct. The first Code of Professional Ethics was formulated by the Alabama State Bar Association in 1887. The American Bar Association (ABA) Canons of Professional Ethics followed, in 1908, and were subsequently adopted in whole or in part throughout the United States. These canons were revised and expanded in 1969, as the Model Code of Professional Ethics, and again in 1983, as the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

Among the major issues of concern to bar associations in the 1990s are the following: [bl]A perceived decline in professionalism among lawyers, manifested by a decline in civility and professional courtesy.

A conflict between lawyers' ethical responsibilities and their business interests. Critics within and outside the legal profession complain that some lawyers seek out clients using unethical methods, and engage in litigation of questionable merit in the pursuit of personal profit rather than in the interests of justice.

The politicization of bar associations. On some occasions, bar associations have taken positions on hotly contested social and political issues. Critics argue that the conflict within the membership over these issues distracts bar associations from their primary duty of regulating the practice of law.

 
Wikipedia: Bar association
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For the broader meaning of "bar" in legal contexts, see Bar (law).
For the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, see Bar Association (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).
 This article includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. (July 2008)

A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both.

In many Commonwealth jurisdictions, the "bar association" comprises lawyers who are qualified as barristers or advocates (collectively known as "the bar", or "members of the bar"), while the "law society" comprises solicitors. These bodies are sometimes mutually exclusive. In other jurisdictions, the "bar" may refer to the entire community of persons engaged in the practice of law.

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United States

Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.
-Benjamin N. Cardozo, In re Rouss, 221 N.Y. 81, 84 (1917)
Sign outside the Massachusetts Bar Association in Boston

In the United States, admission to the bar is permission granted by a particular court system to a lawyer to practice law in that system. This is to be distinguished from membership in a bar association. In the United States, some states require bar association membership for all attorneys, while others do not.

Mandatory, integrated or unified bar associations

Some states require membership in the state's bar association to practice law there. Such an organization is called a mandatory, integrated, or unified bar.[1][2] They exist at present in a slight majority of U.S. states, including Alabama (Alabama State Bar), Alaska, Arizona (State Bar of Arizona), California (State Bar of California), Florida (Florida Bar), Georgia (State Bar of Georgia), Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan (State Bar of Michigan), Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon (Oregon State Bar), Rhode Island (Rhode Island Bar Association), South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas (State Bar of Texas), Utah, Virginia (Virginia State Bar), Washington (Washington State Bar Association), West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands also have unified bars.

In some states, like Wisconsin, the mandatory membership requirement is implemented through an order of the state supreme court, which can be revoked or canceled at any time at the court's discretion. In others, like Oregon, the state legislature passed a law and created a new government agency. California went farther than any other state and wrote the State Bar of California into its constitution.

The first state to have an integrated bar association was North Dakota in 1921.[3]

Voluntary bar associations

A voluntary bar association is a private organization of lawyers. Each chooses its own purposes (e.g. social, educational, and lobbying functions), but does not regulate the practice of law or admit lawyers to practice.

There is a statewide voluntary bar association in every state that has no mandatory or integrated bar association. There are also many voluntary bar associations organized by city, county, or other community. Such associations are often focused on common professional interests (such as bankruptcy lawyers or in-house counsel) or common ethnic interests (such as gender, race, religion, or national heritage), such as the Hispanic National Bar Association. The American Bar Association is the voluntary bar association with the largest membership. Such associations often advocate for law reform and provide information in bar journals, pro bono services or a lawyer referral service to the general public.

There is no mandatory federal bar association. The Federal Bar Association is a private, voluntary group.

There are also a number of subject-specific private associations, which are not officially denominated as bar associations but which serve similar functions in terms of providing their members with useful publications, networking opportunities, and continuing legal education. The largest association of defense counsel is the Defense Research Institute (the "Voice of the Defense Bar"), while the largest association of plaintiffs' counsel is the American Association for Justice (formerly Association of Trial Lawyers of America).

Most American law schools have a student bar association, which is a student organization that fulfills various functions, including sometimes serving as the student government.

Judges

Judges may or may not be members of the bar. Etymologically, they sit "on the bench", and the cases which come before them are "at bar" or "at bench". Many states in the United States require that some or all judges be members of the bar; typically these limit or completely prohibit the judges from practicing law while serving as a judge.

The U.S. Constitution contains no requirement that Federal judges or Supreme Court justices be members of the bar. However, there are no modern instances of the President nominating or the Congress approving any candidate who is not a member of any bar. There are various professional associations of judges, such as the American Judges Association, that perform some of the educational and other service functions of bar associations.

Commonwealth

See Bar council

In Canada, one is called to the bar after undertaking a post law school training in a provincial law society program, and undergoing an apprenticeship or taking articles. Legal communities are called provincial law societies, except for Nova Scotia, where it is called the "Nova Scotia Barristers' Society", and Quebec, where it is called the Barreau du Quebec.

In India under the legal framework set established under the Advocates Act, 1961,[4] a law graduate is required to be enrolled with the Bar Council of India. The process of enrollment is delegated by the Bar Council of India to the state Bar Councils wherein almost each state has a Bar Council of its own. Once enrolled with a State Bar Council, the law graduate is recognized as an Advocate and thereupon is entitled to appear and practice before any court in India. There is no formal requirement for further membership of any Bar Association. However Advocates do become members of various local or national bar associations for reasons of recognition and facilities which these associations offer. Besides the Bar Council of India, other known Bar Associations in India are "All India Bar Association" and "Supreme Court Bar Association". Each State and local court generally also has a Bar Association of its own, like the "Delhi High Court Bar Association" "Bombay High Court Bar Association" etc.

In Pakistan, one becomes a member of the bar after fulfilling certain requirements. He or she must have a valid law degree from a recognized university, and must offer certain undertakings and pay the Bar Association fees. If a person does not hold an LL.M Degree he or she must first complete six months pupillage with a practising Advocate, whom he or she must have assisted on at least ten cases during a six-month pupillage period.

Etymological history

See bar (law)

The use of the term bar to mean "the whole body of lawyers, the legal profession" comes ultimately from English custom. In the early 16th century, a railing divided the hall in the Inns of Court, with students occupying the body of the hall and readers or benchers on the other side. Students who officially became lawyers crossed the symbolic physical barrier and were "admitted to the bar".[5] Later, this was popularly assumed to mean the wooden railing marking off the area around the judge's seat in a courtroom, where prisoners stood for arraignment and where a barrister stood to plead. In modern courtrooms, a railing may still be in place to enclose the space which is occupied by legal counsel as well as the criminal defendants and civil litigants who have business pending before the court.

See also

Generally

Selected voluntary bar associations

Selected mandatory bar associations

References

  1. ^ William Burnham, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, 4th ed. (St. Paul: Thomson West, 2006), 135.
  2. ^ The concept of the integrated bar was discussed in Keller v. State Bar of California, 496 U.S. 1 (1990), in which the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the Supreme Court of California that the state could force lawyers to join the State Bar of California and pay fees as a condition of practicing law in the state. However, the Court then went on to hold that the State Bar could not force lawyers to pay for political and ideological activities with which they did not agree.
  3. ^ Lawrence M. Friedman, American Law in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 41.
  4. ^ "THE ADVOCATES ACT, 1961" (PDF). Bar Council of India. http://barcouncilofindia.nic.in/disk1/196125.pdf. Retrieved on 2008-08-27. 
  5. ^ "Etymology: Bar". EtymologyOnline.com. http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bar. Retrieved on December 11 2006. 

External links

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United States

Commonwealth of Nations

Civil law and similar jurisdictions


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Law Encyclopedia. West's Encyclopedia of American Law. Copyright © 1998 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Bar association".  Read more

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