SELF-GOVERNANCE
The SELF-GOVERNANCE OF THE LITHUANIAN BAR ASSOCIATION consists of the following bodies: the General Meeting of Advocates, the Bar Council, the Court of Honour of Advocates, the Inspection Commission. In order to implement decisions of the General Meeting of Advocates and the Bar Council, the Bar Council may, if necessary, form committees and provisional commissions.
The contemporary system of the Lithuanian Bar Association started functioning in the independent Lithuania on 3 December 1918.
Lithuanian Statutes I, II and III of 1529, 1566, 1588 already provided for a person's right to have a defender, these are the first written hints on the profession of an advocate.
On 3 December 1918, the Lithuanian Government started taking over courts from representatives of the German occupational government, the real functioning of the system of courts and the bar started.
On 4 April 1919, the Minister of Justice Petras Leonas signed circular No. 5 “For regional courts, justices of peace, court interrogators, state defenders and notaries”, leaving the procedure of activities of the Bar established by the Tsarist Russian in effect.
On 5 December 1920, the first Council of Sworn Advocates was elected.
On 13 March 1927, the Council of Sworn Advocates decided to establish unpaid legal consultancies for the poor by regional courts.
On 16 September 1992, the first Law on the Bar of the independent Republic of Lithuania was adopted.
On 20 September 1992, the Lithuanian Bar Association became a member of the International Bar Association (IBA).
On 25 June 1998, a new Law on the Bar was adopted, which was superseded by the law of 18 March 2004, which continues in effect, as amended.
On 21 May 1999, the Conference of Advocates adopted the Code of Advocates’ Professional Ethics, which was recast in the General Meetings of Advocates of 8 April 2005 and 15 April 2016 and continues in effect, as amended.
On 26 March 2004, the Conference of Advocates of the Republic of Lithuania ratified the Code of Conduct for Lawyers in the European Union.
On 1 May 2004, when the Republic of Lithuania acceded to the EU, the Lithuanian Bar Association acquired the status of a full member of CCBE.
On 15 October 2013, the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania entered the 3rd of December on the list of memorable days as the day of the Lithuanian Bar Association. The relevant law came into effect on 7 November 2013.
In December 2018, the Lithuanian Bar Association commemorated its centenary.
On 28 August 2020, for the first time in the history of the Lithuanian Bar Association, all advocates not only electronically registered for a meeting of their supreme self-governance body, but also attended it remotely, joining the live broadcast of the meeting, and for the first time voted on important self-governance issues by means of electronic communication.
On 17-20 May 2022. For the first time, Vilnius hosted the 15th Annual International Bar Association (IBA) International Bar Leaders' Conference and the IBA Mid-Year Events, organized by the IBA and the Lithuanian Bar Association. On that occasion, a joint Bar Association and IBA conference on the protection of professional secrecy was organized.
On 27 May 2022. For the first time, the General Meeting of Advocates elected the President of the Bar Council, the Bar Council and three members of the Court of Honor exclusively by electronic voting. Mindaugas Kukaitis, who served as the Deputy Chairman of the Bar Council during the previous term, became the new Chairman of the Lithuanian Bar Association.
On 25-27 August 2022. The Nordic-Baltic Bar Summit took place in Vilnius.
On 8 December 2023. The Lithuanian Bar Association celebrates its 105th anniversary. On the anniversary, a new award, created in cooperation with artist and sculptor Tadas Gutauskas, "DEFENDER", was presented for outstanding merits in the defence of Human Rights as well as the film "Callers of Justice. Lawyers", about the most important values upheld by lawyers.
