British Virgin Islands Bar Association

BVI Bar Association

Abbreviation	BVIBA
Formation	1976
Type	Unincorporated association
Legal status	Active
Purpose	Professional association
Region served	British Virgin Islands
Official language	English
President	Jacqueline Daley-Aspinall

The BVI Bar Association is a voluntary membership organisation for members of the legal profession in the British Virgin Islands (BVI). The Association was founded on 8 May 1976. Of the eight founder members, half would go on to serve as President at some point. Residency requirements for members (and the fact that membership is entirely voluntary) mean that not all members of the British Virgin Islands legal profession are members. Most resident lawyers within the BVI do in fact join the BVI Bar Association, but it is relatively rare for non-resident lawyers to join (and most are not eligible to do so unless they hold Belonger status). The BVI Bar Association currently has no statutory functions and it is open to membership by both Barristers and Solicitors within the jurisdiction.

Although for historical reason the Association is referred to as the "Bar" Association, it has always been open to both barristers and solicitors. 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".

In early drafts of the Legal Professions Act, 2015 the BVI Bar Association is referred to (incorrectly) as the "Virgin Islands Bar Association". The Government of the British Virgin Islands is keen to promote the use of the Territory's official name of the Virgin Islands (without the prefix "British") in all official documents and publications, and the error probably arose as a result of this process. Happily the error was corrected at the very final committee stage before the third reading of the Bill.

Unlike most national bar associations, the BVI Bar Association does not represent all legal professionals within the jurisdiction. 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. From the perspective of the Association, this has created increasing problems as ever larger numbers of BVI qualified lawyers working for Offshore Magic Circle firms practise British Virgin Islands law from outside of the jurisdiction, meaning that the proportion of admitted BVI lawyers who are members of the BVI Bar Association has dwindled. 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.