The Birmingham Law Society is a professional association of solicitor

Solicitor

Solicitors are lawyers who traditionally deal with any legal matter including conducting proceedings in courts. In the United Kingdom, a few Australian states and the Republic of Ireland, the legal profession is split between solicitors and barristers , and a lawyer will usually only hold one title...

s, barristers and legal executives based in Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is the oldest such organisation in England and Wales

England and Wales

England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

, and the largest except for the national Law Society of England and Wales

Law Society of England and Wales

The Law Society is the professional association that represents the solicitors' profession in England and Wales. It provides services and support to practising and training solicitors as well as serving as a sounding board for law reform. Members of the Society are often consulted when important...

.

History

The society was founded on January 3, 1818 at a meeting in the Royal Hotel in Temple Row. Birmingham at that time had no courts of its own and the society initially had 19 members out of a total of 54 lawyers practising in the town.

The society took over the Birmingham Law Library, then based in Waterloo Street, in 1832. In 1934 both society and library relocated to a former temperance hall on Temple Street designed by architect Charles Bateman

Charles Bateman

Charles Edward Bateman FRIBA was an English architect, known for his Arts and Crafts and Queen Anne-style houses and commercial buildings in the Birmingham area and for his sensitive vernacular restoration and extension work in the Cotswolds.- Life and career :Bateman was born in Castle Bromwich,...

in 1933.. In 2008 Birmingham Law Society transferred its library to Aston University and in 2009 it moved out of the Temple Street Premises.

Today the Society is a modern, dynamic organisation. During 2011 its membership increase by around 1,000 lawyers (40% increase) taking overall membership to over 3,500 lawyers from all over the West Midlands. The Society was the first in the country to welcome barristers as members and now has almost 500 barristers within its membership. It is by far the largest local law society in England and Wales and has 45 lawyers sitting on the Society's Council with over 100 lawyers involved with the Society's various committees. .