Abstract

"The Bar Association of San Francisco: Legal professionalization in the public interest, 1872-2022"

Glenn Bugos, Moment LLC (glenn@momentllc.com)

The Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) formed 150 years ago (1872), the third bar association among many formed in advance of the American Bar Association in 1878. This paper is based on archival and narrative work BASF commissioned to support their sesquicentennial events (https://www.sfbar.org/150th/). I will start with an overview of BASF goals for that project. This paper then presents an overview history of BASF, marking steps in professionalization prior to 1920 familiar from Paul Starrs’ The Social Transformation of American Medicine: a democratic association, asserting self-governance, a code of legal ethics, a library as canon, certifying education, awarding exemplary careers, disciplining members, continuing education, regularizing access to arenas of practice (the courts), and lobbying for self-regulation at higher levels of government. I then focus on three eras in BASF history that highlight how, while promoting the self-interests of attorneys, BASF also shaped the bar to serve the public interest. BASF started largely as a social club, offering a club house nearby the courts, then quickly asserted themselves in efforts to cure inefficiencies in the courts. In the 1930s, BASF gave up power to help create a unified bar better able to lobby the legislature for a uniform code and to better discipline their profession. In the 1970s and 1980s, through its soft power from respect within its communities, BASF moved to improve the diversity of the bar as well as create a venue for effective pro bono work.