Levin, L. C., Mather, L., & de Groot-van Leeuwen, L. (2018). The impact of international lawyer organizations on lawyer regulation. Fordham Int’l LJ, 42, 407.
While much of the scholarly attention devoted to lawyer regulation focuses on state or national actors, the impact of international lawyer organizations has been largely ignored. Increasingly, however, a number of such lawyer organizations influence the regulation of lawyers, including, inter alia, the International Bar Association (“IBA”), the Union Internationale des Avocats (“UIA”), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (“CCBE”), the Inter-American Bar Association (“IABA”), and the Pan-African Lawyers Union (“PALU”).1 So, too, do a few national lawyer organizations with an international reach, such as the American Bar Association (“ABA”). Thus, the term “international lawyer organization” is used here to include not just organizations with a truly international membership, but transnational lawyer organizations, as well as national lawyer organizations with a substantial international
mission. These organizations are playing an important role in shaping lawyer admission requirements and ethical standards for lawyers, the structure of lawyer regulatory systems, and attitudes about the role of lawyers in civil society.