Missouri has a so-called "integrated" bar, meaning that all practicing attorneys in Missouri are required to be members of the Missouri Bar. A substantial portion of the annual enrollment fees paid by Missouri attorneys through the Clerk of the Missouri Supreme Court goes toward support of Missouri Bar programs.

Additional information on the programs of the Missouri Bar is available on the Missouri Bar Web Site, so this page will provide only a brief overview.

The Missouri Bar’s Headquarters are located at 326 Monroe St., P.O. Box 119, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0119. The main telephone number is 573-635-4128. The headquarters have meeting rooms and conference areas available to groups or individuals who need space for meetings, depositions, or other business functions. The location is convenient to the Supreme Court Building, Capitol Building and many state office buildings.

The current (1997-1998) President of the Missouri Bar is Marvin E. (Bunky) Wright, from Columbia, Missouri. He was formerly in private practice in Columbia and now heads the legal department of the University of Missouri System. The Missouri Bar is governed by a Board of Governors, consisting of attorneys from all over the state who are elected by attorneys in their local areas. The organization has more than 24,000 member attorneys and employs about 40 full-time employees.

There are a number of specialized committees dealing with specific areas of legal practice. These committees work to educate their members and the bar at large and recommend improvements in their particular areas of the law. If the Board of Governors agrees, a committee proposal for improvement in the law is pursued by working with the Missouri General Assembly to obtain new or changed statutes and by consulting with the courts to encourage new and revised court rules.

The Missouri Bar provides continuing legal education (CLE) to lawyers through the presentation of seminars and the publication of books on specialized areas of the law and periodicals highlighting recent developments. The seminars help Missouri attorneys comply with a Missouri Supreme Court requirement to complete a minimum of 15 hours of CLE each year.

The Lawyer Referral Service, established in 1978, can help people needing legal help find an attorney. Upon calling the service at 573-636-3635, the caller will be referred to an attorney in his or her area. The attorney will provide a initial half-hour consultation for a $25 fee, which is sent to the Lawyer Referral Service. These fees, along with $30 paid yearly by participating attorneys, offset the costs of the program.

To help Missouri attorneys purchase affordable malpractice insurance, The Missouri Bar sponsored the formation of a professional liability insurance company, The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company.

The Missouri Bar maintains a Client Security Fund to compensate eligible clients victimized by attorneys. Compensation is not available for cases of attorney malpractice. Before a client can receive compensation from the Client Security Fund, the client's attorney must be disbarred, suspended, deceased or adjudicated mentally incapacitated. Payments are limited to 80% of the amount of the client’s loss over $1,000, and there is a maximum payment of $20,000.

Extensive public information services are provided by The Missouri Bar to help keep Missourians up to date on laws affecting their lives and the activities of the bar and the work of its members.

Several programs of The Missouri Bar are designed to provide direct assistance to lawyers and their clients:

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