Actual Powers of the Bar: Starting at the Start

 

Now we've examined the primary enabling statute for the Bar, let's start back at the beginning of Article I of Chapter 39 and see what various powers are found therein. Keep in mind that words like "member of the Virginia State Bar" do not give the Bar powers. It's merely a long winded way of saying "licensed Virginia attorney.

§ 54.1-3900.01(A) creates by reference "Bar Counsel"¹ and give it one power - to make an ex parte motion to a court to appoint someone to takeover a law practice which an attorney can no longer handle.

§ 54.1-3900.01(B) creates by reference the Virginia State Bar Clients' Protection Fund and tells us it has a generalized power to investigate. It also confirms that the Bar can do disciplinary investigations.

§ 54.1-3900.01(E) gives the Bar the duty to pay an attorney who closes down another's practice - if it has the money. It gives the Bar the power to sue the attorney whose practice was closed, or her estate, for the money paid.

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§ 54.1-3902(B) makes the Bar the entity which takes a fee from and gives a certificate of registration to "a professional corporation, a professional limited liability company, or a registered limited liability partnership." In the included (B)(1) & (2) there are requirements for the members of the organization, BUT there is neither a granted power to investigate under this section nor a required duty to do so. In other words, this statute makes the Bar nothing more than the fee collection bureaucracy for the Commonwealth.  

[Comment: However, the Bar can still investigate under (B)(2) if the name of the organization violates the ethics rules the attorney members are subject to.]

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And that's it. There are more laws pertaining to Bar members as attorneys in this chapter, but nothing more that empowers or obligates the Bar itself.

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¹  Keep in mind that there may be statutes later on actually stating they create things and positions. Since I am covering this from the beginning forward, when I refer to a statute "creating by reference" a position, committee, etc. it means this is the first statute it appears in not that the statute addressed is the end all be all about it.