Utah State Bar is the regulatory agency established by the Utah Supreme Court to regulate the practice of law in Utah. The Utah State Bar is funded by dues from members, Bar exam dues, continuing education fees, Pro Hac Vice fees, and revenue generated by annual conventions. Beginning in 2019, the Utah State Bar, in conjunction with the Supreme Court, implemented a series of groundbreaking changes designed to improve access to justice for all individuals.

History

Starting around 1851, lawyers in the Territory of Utah would petition the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

for permission to practice law in Utah, and once approved, they became members of the bar of all the courts in the territory. Essentially, there was a Bar in the Territory of Utah, but no

bar association A bar association is a professional association of lawyers as generally organized in countries following the Anglo-American types of jurisprudence.

until 1884. Informal associations of Utah lawyers began to form no later than the early 20th century. In 1931 the Utah legislature passed a law designating the private corporation known as "Utah State Bar" to self-regulate the activities of dues-paying legal licensees in the State of Utah.

Structure

Utah State Bar is managed by a Board of Commissioners including thirteen voting members, eleven elected lawyers and two non-lawyers appointed by the Court. The Commission also includes non-voting

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

members: the deans of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

Law School and

Brigham Young University Law School The J. Reuben Clark Law School (BYU Law or JRCLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Founded in 1973, the school is named after J. Reuben Clark, a former U.S. Ambassador, Undersecr ...

, the Bar's delegate to the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary association, voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students in the United States; national in scope, it is not specific to any single jurisdiction. Founded in 1878, the ABA's stated acti ...

, the Utah American Bar Association members' delegate to the ABA, the president of the Young Lawyers Division, and representatives from the Women Lawyers of Utah, the Utah Minority Bar Association, the Bar's representative to the Utah Judicial Council, and the Past President of the Bar. Utah State Bar maintains a requirement that Utah legal licensees must complete 24 credits of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) every two years.

Publications

Utah State Bar publishes the bi-monthly ''Utah Bar Journal''.

Pornographic Email Incident

Just after 3:00 pm on Monday March 5, 2018 a NSFW email containing a large pornographic image resembling the bare breasts of a female was sent from Utah State Bar to every dues-paying member of Utah State Bar. This included over 500 dues-paying members outside of Utah. The pornographic image was opened by at least one dues-paying member who claimed to be on the house floor of the Utah State Capital and that an intern also saw the pornographic image.

References

{{Authority control American state bar associations Government of Utah 1931 establishments in Utah Organizations established in 1931