Lawyers' Professional Organizations and Their Influence on Regulation

Abstract

Legal professions are all over the world subject to a specific regulation that essentially constitutes a restriction of economic freedom and freedom of profession. Such restrictions are justified by the need to protect the public interest as legal services belong to credence goods, information asymmetry occurs and legal profession performance requests guarantees for independence. The traditional element of legal professions' regulation is a self-regulation. The concept bases on the acquisition by organizations representing lawyers the right to determine the rules of access to the profession, the rules for the performance of legal profession, and the disciplinary jurisdiction. The self-regulatory model of legal professions is differently shaped in different legal cultures.

In some countries, lawyers' organizations have the character of professional self-government, whose independence is protected by public law, in others they seek to obtain a public-law mandate to regulate the profession or simply to acquire an influence on the legal profession regulation. The paper presents how lawyers' organizations develop their position in the legal system of the United States. In particular the paper analyzes institutional framework of lawyers' regulation in the United States and presents three pillars of this regulation: admission to bar, professional conduct and professional discipline.