THE PUBLIC BENEFITS because all attorneys must join the bar.

In what can only be construed as an attack on the courts and an attempt to diminish the power of the New Hampshire Bar Association, the House has approved a bill that would make membership in the association voluntary. The measure is now before the Senate, which should reject it.

Why should the public care one way or another? After all, if you’re not a lawyer, it wouldn’t affect you – or would it?

It would, and not for the better.

In addition, since authority over the bar, by tradition and under the New Hampshire Constitution, resides not with the legislative branch but with the judicial system, the measure is of dubious constitutionality. Its passage would set the stage for a battle between the branches that, given the enmity of the recent past, is unnecessary and unwise.

New Hampshire is one of 32 states and territories that have what is known as a unified bar. If you want to practice law in the state, you must join and pay dues. The move to permit lawyers to vote to de-unify was presented as a bid to maximize their freedom of choice. But while it’s true that lawyers have not had that freedom since the unified system was adopted in 1968, the tradeoff for both lawyers and the public they serve has been worth it. The state’s lawyers recognize this and overwhelmingly support the system.

Before the bar unified, according to Fred Upton, a Concord attorney who testified against the bill earlier this week, the bar association was weak. Activities like those it supports today were not possible. The public would lose if membership were made voluntary.

The resources of a unified bar allow it to refer thousands of people to appropriate lawyers, to offer free legal advice to callers on a regular basis and to run programs for the public.

The state’s system of legal defense for the poor is infinitely better than it would be had the bar not unified. Creation of the Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts program would not have been possible. Through the bar association, the program pools small sums held by lawyers in trust accounts for clients into a single account that earns substantial interest. Individually, the sums are too small to merit a bank account of their own. But the pooled account earns more than $1 million per year. All of it goes to pay for legal services to the poor. That’s money that would otherwise have to be raised from taxpayers.

A unified bar allows the association to stress pro bono service on the part of its members, to match needy clients with lawyers and to direct legal services to parts of the state where the need may be great but lawyers are few.

A unified bar makes a strong system of continuing education possible. That helps ensure that the lawyers people hire are up-to-date.

Directly and indirectly, a unified bar also increases peer scrutiny and pressure on members of the profession. Before the bar unified, some of the lawyers most in need of a refresher course on ethics, for example, were among those least likely to join.

The de-unification bill also has a Part 2. It calls for narrowly restricting the association’s lobbying activities, and it requires that the bar prove substantial unanimity on an issue before taking action. That attempt to control the speech of the organization is also of dubious constitutionality. Such limits are properly placed upon the organization’s speech only by its members or by the courts.

The de-unification bill took aim at the state’s lawyers. They are popular and easy targets. But it is the public that will suffer if this bill becomes law.

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