Admission to the 'Bar' Costs a Lot

“What does it mean to be ‘admitted to the bar’?”

Put simply, being admitted to the bar means that someone has performed all the requisite acts to possess a law license and, therefore, practice law. That might be quickly understood, but the significance of the phrase is often overlooked. What is “The Bar” and how does one get “admitted” to it?

Most attribute the origination of the phrase, believe it or not, to a literal bar, or railing. In Olde England, those wishing to be lawyers did not necessarily go to law school (lucky Redcoats!). Instead, they learned by apprenticing in the courts every day. In those courts was a literal barrier, a bar, that separated those law students from the actual court where the English “barristers” (lawyers) would argue before judges with faux white hair. Once the student proved himself, he was then “admitted to the bar,” quite literally, he passed from where the students sat, through the barrier, and into the arena in which the barristers plied their trade.

Fast forward a number of years to when the Supreme Court of the United States was still housed in the U.S. Capitol building. Today, if you visit that basement of a courtroom, you will yet see a barrier. Behind the barrier are two or three sets of desks; in front of it, only one set of desks. In those days, the Supreme Court would hear multiple cases at a time, moving them through one after the other. The active cases would be argued by the lawyers sitting at the tables closest to the bench. When that case finished, the attorneys at the next closest set of tables just behind the “bar,” were called forward and their case was “admitted.” Hence, they were “admitted to the bar.”

Today, the phrase has lost a bit of its historical significance. Many courtrooms still house an actual bar that separates the public from the activities of court, but the phrase typically just refers to the granting of a law license. In WV, one is admitted to the bar when he completes college, survives law school, passes a rigorous bar examination, and is recommended to the Supreme Court of Appeals of WV for “admission.” The attorney then swears an oath and is permitted to practice before that court and any lower courts under its jurisdiction.

Each new attorney in WV must also travel in person to Charleston and sign the “roll” (a book containing the signatures of all attorneys ever admitted to our courts – not unlike the legal equivalent of the “Lamb’s book of life”). After studying, testing, signing, and swearing, then, and only then, can one be deemed, “admitted to the bar.”

There you have it! Far from simply a cover charge that gains you admission to your local watering hole, being “admitted to the bar” is a maxim with a storied past and a practical significance.

Copyright: Jeremiah G. Dys, Esq. May not be used absent express, written permission. Please contact the author for permission to reprint.