bar association

 

For the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode, see Bar Association (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine).

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.

United States

Membership in the bar is a privilege burdened with conditions.

-Benjamin N. Cardozo, In re Rouss, 221 N.Y. 81, 84 (1917)

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. They exist at present in a slight majority of U.S. states, including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, 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 cancelled 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.^[1]

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, 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.

Most American law schools have a Student Bar Association that fulfills various functions including 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 Pakistan, one becomes a member of the bar after fullfiling certain requirements. They must have a valid law degree from a recognized university, and they offer certain undertakings and pay the Bar Association fees. If a person does not hold an LL.M Degree then they must first complete six months pupillage with a practising Advocate, whom they must have assisted on at least ten cases during their six-month pupillage period.

Etymological History

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".^[2] 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.

References

1. ^ Lawrence M. Friedman, American Law in the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002), 41.
2. ^ Etymology: Bar. EtymologyOnline.com. Retrieved on December 11, 2006.

See also

Generally

• Disbarment
• Student Bar Association
• Barristers in England and Wales

Selected voluntary bar associations

• American Bar Association
• Canadian Bar Association
• Commonwealth Lawyers Association
• Minnesota State Bar Association
• New Zealand Bar Association
• South Bay Bar Association (Los Angeles, California)

Selected mandatory bar associations

• Honorable Society of King's Inns (Ireland)
• State Bar of California
• State Bar of Texas
• Florida Bar
• Washington State Bar Association

Bar association equivalents

• Bar council
• Law society

External links

• List of Bar Associations, courtesy Hieros Gamos

United States

• Alabama State Bar
• California State Bar Association
• Federal Communications Bar Association
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Minnesota State Bar Association
• Ohio State Bar Association
• Pennsylvania Bar Association
• State Bar of Texas
• Washington State Bar Association

Commonwealth of Nations

• The Hong Kong Bar Association
• The Law Society of Hong Kong
• The Bar Council of England and Wales
• The Law Society of England and Wales
• Law Society of Upper Canada

Civil law and similar jurisdictions

• Bundesrechtsanwaltskammer (German)
• Ordem dos Advogados (Portugal) (Portuguese)
• Ordre des Avocats de Paris (French)
• Swedish Bar Association

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