[2] Membership in good standing in the VSB is mandatory for attorneys wishing to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The VSB is governed by its Council and Executive Committee, whose members are elected or appointed from the judicial circuits in the Commonwealth.
In NAACP v. Button, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Virginia Bar's attempt to use lawyer ethics laws against the NAACP, which was litigating against Virginia school districts as well as state agencies which had adopted a policy of Massive Resistance to the Brown v. Board of Education decisions.
In 1978, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in 'Virginia State Bar v. Surety Title Insurance Agency, Inc.,' 571 F.2d 205 (4th Cir.
1978) was faced with the bar's attempt to regulate non-lawyer employees of title insurance companies.