American Bar Association
| American Bar Association | |
|---|---|
|
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| legal form | society |
| purpose | Lawyers Association |
| Seat | Chicago |
| founding | August 21, 1878
|
| place | Chicago |
| president | Judy Perry Martinez |
| Website | [1] |
The American Bar Association (ABA) is an association of lawyers , judges and students of law in the United States . It was founded by around 100 attorneys on August 21, 1878 in Saratoga Springs , New York , and currently has around 410,000 members, around half of all lawyers admitted to the United States. This makes the ABA the largest professional association in the world based on voluntary membership . The organization is headquartered in Chicago and has a branch in Washington, DC .
Goals and Activities
The goals of the ABA, which sees itself as the advocacy of the lawyer profession in the USA, are to promote and spread justice , professional excellence and respect for the law . Activities include, among other things, the accreditation of legal training at American universities , the development of rules for professional behavior by lawyers, the organization of professional training for lawyers, the education of the public about the legal system and various initiatives to improve it.
Graduation from an ABA-accredited college is a formal requirement in most jurisdictions in the United States to take the bar exam and to be admitted to practice in another state. The rules for professional legal behavior drawn up by the ABA apply in 48 American states. Only California and Maine have adopted their own rules, some of which are, however, also based on the ABA templates. The organization also helps appoint judges by publishing an evaluation of candidates, and has had a museum in Chicago since 1996 on the history of the legal system and its role in society.
Structure and organization
The American Bar Association is divided into subject-specific sections which members can join and which hold their own conferences and publish their own specialist journals and books. It also holds annual meetings, each with around 10,000 attendees, and publishes the monthly membership magazine ABA Journal . The organization employs around 750 full-time employees.
The highest organs are the House of Delegates , which has existed since 1936 , whose approximately 540 members meet twice a year and determine the official position of the organization by issuing new guidelines and recommendations, as well as the Board of Governors , whose 37 members usually five times a year meet and represent the organization externally between meetings of the House of Delegates . The highest representatives of the ABA, ex officio members of the Board of Governors , are the incumbent president for one year, his elected successor, the chairman of the House of Delegates , the secretary and the treasurer.
literature
- American Bar Association (ABA). In: Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica 2007 Ultimate Reference Suite . Encyclopædia Britannica, Chicago 2008
Web links
- Homepage (English)
