"[2] The Alabama State Bar is dedicated to promoting the professional responsibility and competence of its members, improving the administration of justice and increasing the public understanding of and respect for the law.

Often it is difficult to separate these two responsibilities, but during the last few decades with the growing complexity of society and our legal system, the ASB's public role has gained both emphasis and breadth.

Since its creation as an integrated bar association, the ASB has initiated programs addressing a wide range of public concerns; from merit selection of judges to securing adequate funding for representing indigent defendants; from ensuring that non-lawyers sit on disciplinary panels to encouraging the use of mediation as an alternative method of dispute resolution.

The Alabama State Bar is composed principally of practicing attorneys, judges, law teachers, and non-practicing lawyers who are business executives, government officials, court administrators and so forth.

It proposes model rules of professional responsibility (which govern the daily business and ethical practice of lawyers) for adoption by the supreme court.

At this conference, ending January 20, 1879, the constitution and by-laws of the Alabama State Bar Association were adopted and officers elected to serve until the first annual meeting set for the first Tuesday in December 1879.

On December 4, 1879, the first annual meeting of the bar was held in Montgomery and E. W. Pettus of Dallas County was elected president.

As a result of this act, the first meeting of the Alabama State Bar Commission was held on January 8, 1924, when the Board of Commissioners appointed the first board of examiners and adopted rules regulating requirements for admission to practice law and governing the conduct of attorneys in Alabama.

Integration made membership in a traditionally voluntary association mandatory, thereby allowing the Alabama Supreme Court to better regulate the legal profession.

The state bar protects the public by ensuring that lawyers who are granted licenses are not only minimally competent to practice law but also abide by the profession's ethical standards.

Second, the state bar is a private association with responsibilities largely of a service nature, e.g. education, publications and improvement of the administration of justice.

The president and their designee are the official spokesperson in expressing policy of the association as determined by the Board of Bar Commissioners.

The association's current structure includes 21 specialized substantive law sections, 23 standing committees and five task forces.

These units also sponsor conferences, seminars and institutes, monitor legislation, conduct studies and may make policy recommendations to the Board of Bar Commissioners.

Standing Committees and Task Forces have smaller memberships, and generally focus on specific assignments or narrower issues.

The building, located at 1019 South Perry Street, across from the Governor's Mansion, was the home of the bar's Center for Professional Responsibility.

It is decorated with original works of art created by such prominent Alabama artists as Jake Waggoner, Barbara Gallagher, Russ Baxley, Roger Brown, and Nall, to cite a few examples.