What is the Utah Bar Foundation?

The Utah Bar Foundation will be holding a special meeting of it's members on Friday, March 13, 2009 at approximately 9:00 am at the Dixie Center in St. George in conjunction with the Spring Convention of the Utah State Bar. During that meeting, we will be voting on proposed new by-laws for the Foundation. To see a redlined version of the proposed by-laws, please click here.

To see a copy of the amended IOLTA Rule effective as of April 1, 2008, please click here.

The Utah Bar Foundation is a non profit corporation that exists to provide funding in the following categories:

1. To promote legal education and increase the knowledge and awareness of the law in the community.
2. To assist in providing legal services to the disadvantaged.
3. To improve the administration of justice.
4. To serve other worthwhile law-related public purposes.

The Utah Bar Foundation was originally formed in 1963 by Calvin Behle, James E. Faust, Julius Romney, Earl D. Tanner, and Charles Welch, Jr.

In 1983, the Utah Supreme Court authorized the creation of the IOLTA Program. IOLTA stands for Interest On Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. This program allows attorneys to hold interest-bearing client trust accounts. The interest from these accounts is remitted at least quarterly to the Utah Bar Foundation and then granted out annually for the above-mentioned purposes.

Since 1983, the Utah Bar Foundation has been able to provide more than $5 million in grants for law related education and legal services for the poor and disabled.

To see a list of current grantees, please click here.