About Us
The Victoria Bar Association (“VBA”) is the local bar association in Victoria, British Columbia.
The Victoria Bar Association:
- Provides education programs
- Organizes the Spring & Summer Social Dinners, the Holiday Lunch, and AGM
- Organizes sporting events including the Curling Bonspiel, Golf & Baseball
- Administers the court boxes and the Barristers’ Lounge
- Recognizes lawyers for their significant work in the community and in the practice of law through annual awards including the Pam Murray Award
- Contributes to an endowment fund at the University of Victoria Faculty of Law for the support of law students
- Operates the association’s website www.vicbar.ca
- Facilitates communication of local events to the membership
- Promotes Law Day
- Liaises with Court Services, the Canadian Bar Association, the Law Society, and other law related organizations
- Contributes to law-related projects
- Publishes the Praecipe several times a year
VBA membership is a pre-requisite to attend all VBA dinner events.
Who may be a member of the Victoria Bar Association?
Membership in the VBA is intended to be limited to the following categories of people:
- Current practicing or non-practicing members of the Law Society of British Columbia working in or about the County of Victoria;
- Current articled students registered a such with the Law Society of British Columbia working in or about the County of Victoria;
- Current faculty members and students of the University of Victoria – Faculty of Law or other jurists teaching or writing about jurisprudence in or about the County of Victoria;
- Retired members of the Law Society of British Columbia currently residing in or about the County of Victoria;
- Retired judiciary, law school faulty or jurists currently residing in or about the County of Victoria.
Notwithstanding the above, the directors at all times have the discretion:
- to accept as a member anyone who applies to the directors for membership but does not come within any of the categories listed above; or
- to refuse the application for membership of anyone who applies to the directors for membership even if he or she comes within any of the categories listed above.
Part 2 of the VBA Bylaws concerns membership in the VBA but does not identify criteria for membership. The policy above informs the general scope of who may be a member of the VBA under section 4 of the Bylaws.
“County of Victoria” means the judicial division of British Columbia defined as such in section 10 of the County Boundary Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 75.