Ethiopia passed the first-ever legislation establishing the statutary Bar Association as the legal Profession’s national representation in 2021. Ethiopia Federal Advocate’s Association (EFAA) has been established by law under the Federal Advocacy Service Licencing and Administration Proclamation (No. 1249/2021), leading to the country to have the first ever statutory Bar Association, membership of which is mandatory for all 5,200 practicing lawyers at the Federal level. This is also the result of the struggle to have strong, independent and mandatory Bar Association by consecutive generations of lawyers in Ethiopia also a demonstration of major achievements of the legal reform undergoing since 2018 in Ethiopia.

The current legal reforms also recognises EFAA as one of the five core justice institutions in Ethiopia, together with the Federal Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the Federal Police, and the Federal Prisons Authority.

Over 5300 licensed attorneys currently practicing law at the federal level and all the federal advocates are automatically members of the bar association, making it Ethiopia’s largest professional regulatory organization.

Before the establishment of the Ethiopian Federal Advocates’ Association (EFAA) by Proclamation 1249/2021, the Ministry of Justice was in charge of advocacy/Attorney’s  Licensing, administration and regualtion. However, there was no compelling legislation requiring attorneys to join a professional organization, former regimes doesn’t have the political commitement to allow such a statutory bar.

EFAA’s inaugural General Meeting took place on 23 January 2022. It was attended by thousands of  lawyers ( in person and proxy representation), invited honorable Ministers, the Chief Justice, Attorney General and Presidents of the Supreme Courts of the regional states. The inaugural meeting also put in place the assocaition’s governance structure with  the participating members voting to establish an Executive Committee and elect the President and Vice-President of the association. It is worth mentioning here that the president, vice president and all the seven executive committee members were directly elected by all lawyers through a Secret-Ballot-Voting which was directly controlled by the Ethiopian National Electoral Board.

In the first ever General meeting of EFAA, morethan 1600 lawyers/advocates/ are present in person. The newly elected Vice President & two of the executive committee members come from similar leadership positions in the Ethiopian Lawyers Association (ELA), which is a membership-based organisation comprised of jurists from academia and the private sector, bringing considerable existing experience of working with access to justice and legal aid in criminal matters. ELA is also one of the leading legal aid NGOs in the country and has established several legal aid centres at regional level.

EFAA is currently working on promulgating it Memorandum of Association/Bylaws and further structuring the standing & sub-committees that will be functionaning under the association. EFAA’s participation in the action will have a natural influence on the development of these sub-committees and can be expected to contribute to the association having a strong access to justice focus in its operations, not only through the establishment of a dedicated legal aid committee, but also through the integration of gender, equality and non-discrimination perspectives into all areas of its operations.

Although still adding on membership EFAA has secretariat. Its head office is sited in Addis Ababa, Arada Sub-city, Woreda 05 on JUSTICE ORGANS Building. Its finance is mainly from membership fee. But there are different sources of income which EFAA is allowed to gain from.

Ethiopia being a  federal polity, the regions  manage their regional advocacy system in tandem with the national system. This however do not prevent federal attorneys from practicing in provincial courts as long as the case involves a federal matter.

It is known that existing advocates’ associations are professional associations in the civil society format, but the EFAA has been established as a regulatory association (also known as a statutory bar). This is because it is mandated to regulate the profession in addition to safeguarding members interest as in the case of other advocates association which are established to protect and promote the interests of their members.   .

The regulatory power given to the EFAA is an unprecedented move in Ethiopia as regulating the Profession has been under the government’s exclusive jurisdiction hitherto.

It is important to note here that the entire responsibilities of regulating the law profession is not transferred to the EFAA but rather a co-regualtion arrangement until a full transition is made in 2 to 5 years as stipulated in the proclamation.