Guild and other association towers on the bar square

Purpose of the study is to study the phenomenon of the professional association of lawyers in the form of the association of lawyer formations «Guild of Russian Lawyers» through the prism of the theory of advocacy and the theory of social networks. Formal legal method, situation analysis, information synthesis. The Russian legal profession, from the central role of the primary bar association-the collegium, has come to the complete loss of any significant role of the primary association, up to its non-binding nature for lawyers, providing solutions to issues arising between lawyers and the state in the course of carrying out advocacy activities at the mercy of the state. The Guild of Russian Lawyers appeared against the background of a conflict between «traditionalists» and «parallelists» («planned» colleges and colleges of new economic realities). The guild has never been an obstacle, but it also longed for unification, although on different principles, which did not prevent it from sometimes consolidating with the «traditionalists". The guild opposed the unstable system of the bar, which includes disunited individuals ("cabinet men"). Today, the Guild is a large node of the social network of the bar, able to broadcast its ideas both at the federal level and in most regions of Russia. The Guild is a non-systemic professional association that unites bar associations and law bureaus, which has no non-systemic or systemic analogues in the modern structure of the Russian bar. The Guild was the first in Russia to create a commission for the protection of professional rights of lawyers at the federal level. Prior to the adoption of the Law on the Bar in 2002, the Guild relied on strengthening the vertical by consolidating with new boards focused on working with business and in arbitration. At a time when all associations and associations of lawyers were non-systemic. Then the Law of 2002 he rebuilt the hierarchy-a tower tied to chambers and lawyers, and the lawyer's education was lost. The guild did not fight for dominance in the hierarchy, but preferred to go a different way, horizontally connecting and strengthening the bar associations and law offices, becoming for them the very «city» square - a platform for their central communication. Currently, there are no scientific studies of specific public associations of lawyers. Meanwhile, the «tent» system of organizing the legal profession has shown its inefficiency, and among the public associations of lawyers, a natural selection took place, during which only associations of social value for the legal profession remained out of numerous associations and unions created from the mid-90s to the beginning of the noughties. These associations should be thoroughly investigated as a way of self-organization of the legal profession in a natural way, in order to formulate proposals for creating a system more effective than the one available today.