“Some Realism About Bar Associations”

That is the title of a new essay by Elizabeth Chambliss (NYLS) and Bruce Green (Fordham), which is now available on SSRN.  Here is an excerpt of the abstract:

What are bar associations’responsibilities for law reform? Under what conditions do barassociation committees act in the public interest? Do lawyers evenbelieve in the ‘public’ interest as something that can be collectivelydefined?

Thelawyer-statesman is a powerful icon among American lawyers. Yet manyobservers are skeptical that lawyers, individually or collectively, canset aside their clients’ interests, political leanings, and otherbiases to serve as purely public-interested members of the ‘governingclass.’ The empirical literature on bar associations likewise invites acertain amount of cynicism – or at least pessimism – about thepossibility of public-interested law reform. Research shows thatrepresentative bar groups tend to be politically ineffective due tointernal division. Most examples of effective bar influence involveelite, ideologically homogenous groups. …

This Article considers the implications of this research for the role and design of bar law reform committees. … 

[Bill Henderson]