Federal union of lawyers of Russia and trends in the legal profession influencing it

Purpose of the study is the phenomenon of the Federal Union of Lawyers of Russia through trends affecting consolidation in the legal community. We used the formal legal method, situation analysis, information synthesis. 4 periods (stages) were identified: origin, formation, flowering and withering of FSAR; and at each stage - independent trends; substantiated the hypothesis why today the law firm does not have the appropriate registration in the form of a separate subject of law. Currently, there is no scientific research of specific public associations of lawyers. Meanwhile, the "ward" system of organizing the legal profession has shown its ineffectiveness, and among lawyer's public associations there was a natural selection, during which from the numerous associations and unions created since the mid-90s. Until the beginning of the 2000s, only associations of social value for the legal profession remained. These associations should be carefully studied as a way of self-organization of the Bar in a natural way, in order to formulate proposals for creating a system more effective than the one available today.