Voluntary and Mandatory Bars
A mandatory or integrated bar association is one to which a state delegates the authority to regulate the admission of attorneys to practice in that state; typically these require membership in that bar association to practice in that state. Mandatory bars derive their power from legislative statute and/or from the power of the state court system to regulate practice before it.
In the other states, membership in the bar associations is voluntary. In some states, a mandatory organization exists primarily for the purpose of regulating admission to practice, while a voluntary organization exists for other purposes. For example, in Virginia, for example, the Virginia State Bar is the mandatory organization and the Virginia Bar Association is voluntary.
There are many bar associations other than state bar associations. Usually these are organized by geography (e.g. county bar associations), area of practice, or affiliation (e.g. ethnic bar associations).
Read more about this topic: State Bar Association
Famous quotes containing the words voluntary, mandatory and/or bars:
“Men are not therefore put to death, or punished for that their theft proceedeth from election; but because it was noxious and contrary to men’s preservation, and the punishment conducing to the preservation of the rest, inasmuch as to punish those that do voluntary hurt, and none else, frameth and maketh men’s wills such as men would have them.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“Off south, the bison multiply so fast
a slaughter’s mandatory every spring
and every spring the creeks get fat
and Kicking Horse fills up.”
—Richard Hugo (1923–1982)
“I would sell my life to avoid
the pain that begins in the crib
with its bars or perhaps
with your first breath
when the planets drill
your future into you....”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)