Alabama State Bar - Offices

Offices

The Alabama State Bar is headquartered at 415 Dexter Avenue in Montgomery. In 1964, pledges and donations by bar members made for a debt-free bar headquarters building with paid-for furnishings. The original building contained six offices, a library, an assembly room, and a membership file room, plus a print shop added in 1969. By 1980, the bar had outgrown the Dexter Avenue headquarters. Another building was purchased and furnished, again with donations by bar members.

The building, located at 1019 South Perry Street, across from the Governor's Mansion, was the home of the bar's Center for Professional Responsibility.

In the fall of 1992, work was completed on a $3.5 million addition to the bar headquarters building. Member donations covered a little more than a third of the cost. The addition provided 32,000 square feet (3,000 m2), including space for the Center for Professional Responsibility. The original headquarters building was also refurbished and included an office for the state bar president and three conference rooms that are used by state bar committees or can be reserved for use by state bar members.

A portion of the previously unoccupied third floor of the bar addition was built out in 1999 to add office space for several of the bar’s newest programs. Also, a state-of-the-art video conference room was added on the third floor, and is available for use by bar committees and sections. Attorneys may use this facility for client teleconferences and tele-depositions for a reasonable charge. A major refurbishment of the first and second floors of the facility was completed in 2002 with the addition of more parking across the street from the bar center. In 2008, additional office space was created on the third floor as part of a $626,000 build-out of that floor and renovations for the first and second floors.

The State Bar Center features various public recognitions of lawyers, judges and non-lawyers illustrating dedicated service to the profession, judicial excellence and the public service character of the legal profession. It is decorated with original works of art created by such prominent Alabama artists as Jake Waggoner, Barbara Gallagher, Russ Baxley, Roger Brown, and Nall, to cite a few examples.

The annual budget of the Association is approximately $6 million. No tax dollars are used to support bar activities. All practicing attorneys pay an annual license fee, which goes into a special trust fund. From this trust fund the Legislature makes an appropriation for the use of the Alabama State Bar.