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Article: Shrinking Bar Associations Work to Make Their Case
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 8, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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Voluntary bar associations, ranging from the Bar Association
of the District of Columbia to the giant American Bar Association,
have experienced membership losses in recent years and are
scrambling to reverse the trend.
The ABA, whose ranks more than doubled in the 21 years ending
in 1991, hit its peak that year with more than 362,000 members, but
membership has fallen since then -- by 6 percent to about 339,000
last year.
The ABA also has lost market share. While the number of
lawyers in the country has soared to more than 946,000, the
association now has 36 percent of the licensed lawyers among its
ranks, versus 45 percent in 1991.
However, the Chicago-based ABA, still the ...