Inlaw, thebar is thelegal profession as aninstitution. The term is ametonym for the line (or "bar") that separates the parts of acourtroom reserved for spectators and those reserved for participants in atrial such aslawyers.
In the United Kingdom, the term "the bar" refers only to the professional organization forbarristers (referred to in Scotland as advocates); the other type of UK lawyer,solicitors, have their own body, theLaw Society. Correspondingly, being "called to the bar" refers to admission to the profession of barristers, not solicitors.
The origin of the termbar is from the barring furniture dividing a medieval European courtroom, which defined the areas restricted to lawyers and court personnel from which the general public was excluded.[1][2] Within most modern courts of the U.S., Europe and many other countries, the bar continues to be represented by a physical partition, such as arailing orbarrier.[3] The area behind the bar is open to the public.[4] This restriction is enforced in nearly all courts.
The bar may also refer to the qualifying procedure by which a lawyer is licensed to practice law in a given jurisdiction.
In the United States, this procedure is administered by the individualU.S. states and their respective bar associations. In general, a candidate must graduate from a qualifiedlaw school and pass a written test: thebar examination. Almost all states use theMultistate Bar Examination (MBE), a multiple-choice exam administered on one day of a two- or three-day test. An increasing number use theUniform Bar Examination, which includes the MBE. In either case, on days during which the MBE is not administered, the bar exam may include questions related to that state's laws. If the candidate reaches the score required by a particular state, the candidate is thenadmitted to the bar. A lawyer whose license to practice law is revoked is said to bedisbarred.
State bar associations may set additional requirements to bar admission such as trial and court observations, character and background screenings, or an additional examination on professional ethics.
Admission to practice before thepatent section of theUnited States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) requires that the individual pass a separate, single-day examination administered by that agency. This test is typically referred to as the "patent bar", although the word "bar" does not appear in the test's official name.
Unlike the general bar examination, for which graduation from a recognized law school is a prerequisite, the USPTO exam does not require that the candidate have taken any law school courses. Instead, the main prerequisite is a science or engineering background, most often met with a bachelor's degree in a relevant field. Individuals who pass the examination are referred to as "patent attorneys" if they have an active law license from any U.S. jurisdiction, and "patent agents" otherwise. Attorneys and agents have the same license to represent clients before the patent section of the USPTO, and both may issue patentability opinions. However, any other patent-related practice (such as licensing or infringement litigation) can only be performed by licensed attorneys—who do not necessarily have to be USPTO-licensed.
In the United Kingdom, the practice of law is divided betweenbarristers (advocates in Scotland) andsolicitors; advocacy before a court is almost always carried out by barristers (or advocates). A person who becomes an advocate or barrister is referred to as beingcalled to the bar. In the UK, there is a distinction between theinner bar (for seniorKing's counsel) and theouter bar (forJunior barristers).
The bar commonly refers to the legal profession as a whole. With a modifier, it may refer to a branch or division of the profession: as, for instance, thetort bar—lawyers who specialize in filingcivil suits for damages.
In conjunction withbench,bar may differentiate lawyers who represent clients (the bar) from judges or members of ajudiciary (the bench). In this sense, the bar advocates and the bench adjudicates. Yet, in some countries, judges who previously worked as lawyers representing clients commonly remain members of the bar and lawyers are commonly referenced asOfficers of the Court.
The phrasebench and bar denotes all judges and lawyers collectively.[3]
