Lawyers Vote to Retain State Bar

California’s lawyers have voted to keep the State Bar as the organization that regulates their profession and lobbies on their behalf, the bar announced Tuesday. Nearly 65% of the lawyers voting statewide rejected a proposal to abolish the bar. Just over half of the state’s 121,000 practicing lawyers sent in ballots. The vote was required by a law sponsored by state Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco), a leading bar critic. Kopp and others say the bar’s dues of up to $478 a year are too high and the organization is bloated and ineffective.