The Wisconsin Bar Association was a small informal organization between 1878 and 1948. With its successive membership drives starting in the 1930s, the association became a powerful statewide organization. From 1948 to 1957, the Wisconsin Bar Association lobbied for an integrated bar (all lawyers required by state law to be a member of the bar). On January 1, 1957, the Wisconsin Bar Association became the integrated State Bar of Wisconsin through a Wisconsin Supreme Court order.
