The Council of the Lithuanian Bar is a self-governance institution of the Lithuanian Bar Association, supervising, coordinating and controlling activities of lawyers and lawyers’ assistants and seeking to represent their interests, maintaining the optimal balance between traditions of the Lithuanian Bar Association and its modern needs and expectations.
The first Council of the Lithuanian Bar was elected in 1920, then it was called the Council of Sworn Lawyers of Lithuania. It had 7 members (the chairperson, the vice-chairperson and other members). The Council of the Lithuanian Bar was elected annually at the beginning of the year in the general meeting of sworn lawyers. Of the 28 lawyers practising at the time, 15 turned up to take part in the first elections of the Council of the Lithuanian Bar.
The Council of the Lithuanian Bar had the right and the duty to decide issues of admission to the Lithuanian Bar Association, examine lawyers’ disciplinary cases, to appoint a lawyer for conducting a case of a poor person, to manage finances of the organisation, to set the amount of lawyer’s fee (if there was no agreement on the fee between an advocate and a client) and to prepare reports for the General Meeting of Lawyers.
During the past century, the composition and the number of members of the Council of the Lithuanian Bar, the duration of their term of office changed, the list of their functions was supplemented.
The contemporary Council of the Lithuanian Bar has 11 members: the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson and other members of the Lithuanian Bar Association – practising lawyers, who have practised as lawyers for at least 10 years. The Council of the Lithuanian Bar is elected for a term of four years in the General Meeting of Lawyers. The Council of the Lithuanian Bar meets at least once per month. The last election of the Council of the Lithuanian Bar was held in the General Meeting of Lawyers in 2026.
