The BVI Bar Association currently has no statutory functions and it is open to membership by both Barristers and Solicitors within the jurisdiction.

However, since 2015 the British Virgin Islands has had a fused profession, and all lawyers within the jurisdiction are now formally referred to as "legal practitioners".

It is a voluntary organisation, and legal practitioners are not eligible to join until they have been resident in the Territory for at least one year (unless they hold Belonger status).

This is designed to prevent flooding of the association by members of "transient" lawyers, who fly in, get admitted, and then leave the Territory and purport to practise British Virgin Islands law from overseas.

Nonetheless, the Association is generally understood to speak for the profession as a whole within the jurisdiction, and frequently addresses the Territory's legislature on that basis.

Key functions such as ethics, professional discipline, admission to practice and the validation of training institutions and pupillages would be delegated to a newly formed "Virgin Islands General Legal Council".

A total of fifteen persons have served as President of the BVI Bar Association, of whom seven have been men and eight have been women (including the last seven in a row).