The
Arizona Territory was formed in 1865 and already lawyers were practicing law in
three judicial
districts.
In 1895, the first statewide bar association was created and regular meetings
began
occurring.
In 1902, bar dues were raised from $1 to $5. Also in 1902, the bar led the
rewriting of a civil
code
for the Territory and in 1904 strongly promoted the admission of Arizona and
New Mexico as
one
state into the Union. Arizona became the 48th state in 1912.
The
Arizona Bar Association was first incorporated in 1906 and in 1912 it adopted
the ethical rules of
the
American Bar Association and began official admission procedures for the
practice of law. The
University
of Arizona College of Law was created in 1925 to expand upon what had
previously only
been
a department of study.
The
State Bar of Arizona was created as an integrated or "mandatory
membership" organization in
1933
by an act of Legislature
to serve the legal profession and the public. At that time there were 654
attorneys
and 22 judges in the state and only 175 belonged to the voluntary Arizona Bar
Association.
The
State Bar of Arizona began holding annual conventions, except in 1945 during
World War II.
In
1948 the State Bar of Arizona opened its first Office at 234 North Central
Avenue in Phoenix and
hired
its first employee, Mrs. Doris Odom, as secretary. Slightly more than 1,000
attorneys were
licensed to practice law in Arizona at that time.
The
first Executive Director was hired in 1954. Don Phillips served for 10 years
before handing over
the
reins to Eldon Husted whose tenure lasted from 1964 to 1982. Husted prepared
the first annual
budget
for the association in 1965 and it totaled $78,000. When Husted left in 1982,
membership
numbers
had climbed beyond 7,000.
In
1973, the Arizona Supreme Court drafted Rule 31 which created joint oversight
by the legislature
and
supreme court over the State Bar. That joint oversight ended in 1983 when
the Legislature
'sunsetted'
the 1933 State Bar Act.
Today,
the State Bar of Arizona is still located in downtown Phoenix (at 111 West
Monroe) but the
organization's
80 staff members serve more than 14,000 licensed attorneys and manage a $6
million
budget.