About Budapest Bar

The Budapest Bar Association, with a history of over 130 years, is the longest standing and most significant public body of Hungarian attorneys in terms of both social scale and membership.

Operating in Budapest, a city with two million inhabitants, the BBA has a membership of approximately 5,200 registered attorneys, representing roughly 60 percent of the total number of attorneys in Hungary. BBA members are attorneys (ügyvéd) practising their profession in Budapest. Articled clerks preparing for their own legal practice, furthermore, European Community Lawyers (about 50 persons), and Foreign Legal Counsels (about 25 persons) operating in Hungary are not members but also fall under the registration and supervisory functions of the BBA. 

The great majority of our colleagues work either individually or in firms of a few partners, but the number of our colleagues operating in law firms with 20 to 30 members or more, a number adapted to business demands and being rather high in Hungarian terms, has been steadily growing in recent years. In addition, there are numerous renowned European and US law firms providing legal services to their clients under regulated conditions, in registered co-operation with Hungarian attorneys on the Hungarian legal market.

The Budapest Bar Association actively participates in the work of international representative organisations for the legal profession (such as CCBE, IBA, UIA, and AIJA). The First Vice-President of the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), representing the interests of almost 700,000 attorneys all over Europe, is at present dr. Péter Köves, attorney and member of the Budapest Bar Association. Besides, the BBA has intensive bilateral contacts with many bar associations and other professional organisations operating in the neighbouring countries and the Members States of the European Union.

The Budapest Bar Association and its members are readily at the disposal of our esteemed foreign colleagues, the actors of business life and all citizens seeking legal assistance in answering their questions related to the operation of the legal profession, public administration, and jurisdiction in Hungary.