In “bar association,” the word bar is not an acronym and doesn’t stand for anything like “Board of Attorney Regulation” or similar. It’s a historical term from courtrooms.

Quick Scoop

  • The “bar” was originally the physical railing in a courtroom that separated the public seating from the area where the judge, lawyers, jury, and parties sat.
  • To become a lawyer allowed to appear in that inner area, you had to be admitted “to the bar,” meaning you could cross that barrier and act as an officer of the court.
  • Over time, “the bar” came to mean the whole legal profession and the community of licensed lawyers in a given place (for example, the New York bar or California bar).
  • A bar association is therefore simply an organization of lawyers—sometimes mandatory, sometimes voluntary—that represents and regulates members of the legal profession.

So when you see “bar exam” or “bar association,” think of the historical courtroom barrier and the community of lawyers, not of an acronym or initials.