Constitution

Article I. Name and Purposes

Section 1.1 Name. The name of this or­ga­ni­za­tion is the South Caro­li­na Bar (the “Bar”).

Section 1.2 Purposes. The pur­poses of the Bar shall be to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Con­sti­tu­tion of the State of South Caro­li­na; to pro­tect, and maintain re­spect for, rep­re­sen­ta­tive gov­ern­ment; to con­tin­u­al­ly im­prove the ad­min­is­tra­tion of justice through­out the State; to re­quire the high­est stan­dards of eth­i­cal and pro­fes­sion­al con­duct, and up­hold the in­teg­ri­ty and hon­or of the legal pro­fes­sion; to ad­vance the sci­ence of ju­ris­pru­dence; to promote con­sis­tent high qual­i­ty of le­gal edu­ca­tion and legal ser­vic­es to the public; to apply the knowl­edge, ex­pe­ri­ence and ability of the le­gal profession to the pro­mo­tion of the pub­lic good; to encour­age good­will and re­spect for integ­ri­ty and ex­cel­lence in pub­lic ser­vice among the mem­bers of the legal pro­fession and the pub­lic; to per­form any addi­tion­al pur­pos­es and duties as may be as­signed to it by the Supreme Court of South Caro­li­na; to pro­mote and corre­late such pol­i­cies and ac­tiv­i­ties as fall within these pur­pos­es in the in­ter­est of the legal pro­fes­sion and the pub­lic.

Article II. Definitions and General Provisions

Section 2.1 Definitions. In this Con­sti­tu­tion and the Bylaws adopt­ed pur­su­ant here­to the term:
“Adjournment” with respect to an ­Annual Meeting means sine die of the Assembly or of the House of Del­e­gates, which­ev­er is later.
“Annual Meeting” means the year­ly con­vo­ca­tion of the mem­ber­ship.
“Organization year” means the twelve month period from July 1 to June 30, inclusive.
“Section” includes the mem­bers, coun­cil, and committees of the sec­tion.

Section 2.2 General Pro­vi­sions. For the purpose of this Constitution and By­laws
(1) Where a member maintains an office or offices in a different Ju­di­cial Cir­cuit or ju­di­cial region from the one in which he resides, his res­i­dence for the purposes of no­tice, voting, and ­eligi­bil­i­ty for elec­tion shall be deemed to be the Cir­cuit or judicial region in which he main­tains his prin­ci­pal of­fice as re­flect­ed by the mem­ber­ship reg­is­ter of the Bar.
(2) The judicial regions are Re­gion I (coun­ties in Judicial Circuits 7, 10, 13 and 16), Region II (coun­ties in Judicial Cir­cuits 5, 6, 8 and 11), Re­gion III (coun­ties in Judicial Cir­cuits 3, 4, 12 and 15) and Re­gion IV (coun­ties in Judicial Cir­cuits 1, 2, 9 and 14).
(3) Except as specifically pro­vid­ed oth­er­wise in this Con­sti­tu­tion or the Bylaws, any notice which is re­quired or permitted to be given to the mem­bers generally or to any class or class­es of mem­bers may be given by a spe­cial mail­ing or by electronic transmission or it may be con­tained in any official ­publica­tion of the Bar. No­tice is deemed to have been given when the ­communication is directed to the ­member at the mailing address or ­electronic address on the mem­ber­ship reg­is­ter for that member.

Article III. Membership

Section 3.1 Eligibility. All per­sons who shall have been licensed by the South Caro­li­na Supreme Court to ­practice law and who shall not have resigned shall be ­eligible for mem­ber­ship in the Bar.

Section 3.2 Classification of Mem­bers. The classes, priv­i­leg­es, and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties of mem­ber­ship, and other provisions with re­spect to member­ship in the Bar shall be de­lin­eated in the Bylaws.

Section 3.3 Tender of Pay­ment. Any tender of payment of license fees for a year shall not be accepted until all debts to the Bar which are owed as of Sep­tem­ber 1 of the im­me­di­ate­ly ­preceding year have been sat­is­fied. In addition to nor­mal bill­ing prac­tic­es, the Bar will attach to the initial li­cense fee billing a no­tice that the tender will not be ac­cept­ed until out­stand­ing debts have been sat­is­fied. Cop­ies of all out­stand­ing in­voic­es will be attached.

Article IV. Meetings

Section 4.1 Annual Meet­ing. A meeting of the Bar shall be held annually at a time and place determined by the Board of Governors. The Annual Meeting shall include meetings of the House of Delegates and the Assembly and may include such ­meetings of the Board of Governors, divisions, sections, and committees as the Board may authorize. Notice of the Annual Meeting shall be given to all members at least two months in advance.

Section 4.2 Other Meet­ings. In addition to the Annual Meeting, the Bar may hold such meetings, in­clud­ing ­special and re­gion­al meet­ings, upon such notice as the Board of Gov­er­nors may pre­scribe.

Article V. The Assembly

Section 5.1 Composition and Func­tions. The Assembly is the fo­rum for the mem­bers of the Bar at the Annual or any specially called meet­ing. It is composed of the mem­bers who are registered at the meet­ing. A quorum is fifty mem­bers of the Bar who are eligible to vote as pro­vid­ed in the By­laws. During each such meet­ing, the Assembly shall con­vene in ses­sions as de­ter­mined by the Board of Governors. The As­sem­bly may present pro­grams of pro­fes­sion­al in­ter­est and con­sid­er res­o­lu­tions pre­sent­ed by ­members.

Article VI. The House of Delegates

Section 6.1 Powers and Func­tions. The House of Delegates shall control and for­mu­late policy for the Bar. It has all the powers necessary or incidental to per­form those func­tions. It shall su­per­vise and di­rect the Board of Governors, of­fic­ers, di­vi­sions, sec­tions, com­mit­tees, boards, com­mis­sions, task forces, em­ploy­ees, and agents. It shall es­tab­lish or ap­prove the agenda for its meet­ings.

Section 6.2 Composition. The House of Delegates, which is de­signed to be rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the Bar, is ­composed of the following mem­bers:
(1) Circuit Delegates elected from each Judicial Circuit in the manner set forth herein and in the By­laws;
(2) The members of the Board of Governors;
(3) The former presidents of the Bar and its predecessor or­ga­ni­za­tions, the South Carolina Bar As­so­ci­a­tion and the South Carolina State Bar;
(4) One delegate rep­re­sen­ta­tive from each section and the Young Lawyers Di­vi­sion;
(5) The President and Im­me­di­ate Past President of the Senior Law­yers ­Divi­sion; 
(6) Two delegate rep­re­sen­ta­tives elect­ed by the members who reside with­out the State of South Carolina;
(7) Four At Large Delegates elected in the manner set forth herein and in the Bylaws;
(8) The deans of all law schools whose facilities are in South Carolina;
(9) The State Delegate and the State Bar Delegates to the Amer­i­can Bar ­Associ­a­tion; and
(10) The immediate past Chair of the House of Delegates.

Section 6.3 Circuit Del­e­gates; At Large Delegates.
(a) The members of the Bar re­sid­ing in each Judicial Circuit eligible to vote shall elect from among themselves the Circuit Del­e­gate or Del­e­gates to ­represent that Circuit in the House of Del­e­gates. The number of Cir­cuit ­Delegates from each circuit shall be pro­por­tion­ate to the mem­ber­ship in each Circuit with each Circuit hav­ing at least one Del­e­gate. The num­ber of Dele­gates from each Circuit shall be deter­mined as fol­lows:
(1) Each Circuit shall be entitled to one delegate for each rep­re­sen­ta­tive unit as de­fined below together with one del­e­gate for each fraction of a unit great­er than one-half.
(2) A representative unit during any apportion­ment term shall be equal to one hundred five members.
(3) The apportionment term shall be a period of ten years. The initial term shall commence March 1, 2005.
(4) The House of Del­e­gates shall be reapportioned each tenth year us­ing the formula herein set forth.
(b) The At Large Delegates shall be elected by the Board of Governors.
(c) The term of each Circuit Del­e­gate and At Large Delegate shall be two years be­gin­ning the first day of July following his se­lec­tion.

Section 6.4 Meetings. The House of Delegates shall meet during the Annual Meeting and at such other times and plac­es as the Board of Governors may deter­mine. Special meetings shall be called by the Board at the written request of one-tenth of the Del­e­gates. Notice stat­ing the place, day, and hour of the meet­ing and the purpose or pur­pos­es for which it is called shall be given to each Del­e­gate not less than ­fifteen days be­fore the date of the meet­ings. A quorum shall consist of thirty Del­e­gates. Except as provided oth­er­wise by this Con­sti­tu­tion or the By­laws, the vote of a majority of the Del­e­gates present at a meeting at which a quorum is present shall be the act of the House of Del­e­gates.

Section 6.5 Referendum. On a ques­tion relating to the substance of the law, the administration of jus­tice, or the pol­i­cy of the Bar, the House of ­Delegates, by the vote of a majority of the total number of Delegates then in of­fice, may direct a ref­er­en­dum by mail ballot of the mem­bers of the Bar who are entitled to vote as pro­vid­ed by the By­laws. A ma­jor­i­ty of the votes cast in the ref­er­en­dum determines the ­position of the Bar with re­spect to the ques­tion sub­mit­ted.

Section 6.6 Legislative Po­si­tions and Briefs.
(a) The Bar shall publish notice of adop­tion of legislative positions and ­filing of briefs in SC ­Lawyer or other publication in the issue prepared im­me­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing the meet­ing at which the po­si­tions were tak­en or filing authorized. An­nu­al­ly the Bar shall pub­lish the amount expended from un­re­strict­ed funds to sup­port leg­is­la­tive pol­i­cies and file briefs, which amount shall be in­de­pen­dent­ly ver­i­fied by a cer­ti­fied pub­lic ac­coun­tant and shall be used to de­ter­mine the pro rata amount of a mem­ber’s li­cense fee ex­pend­ed for such ac­tiv­i­ties. The pro rata amount per mem­ber­ship cat­e­go­ry shall be in the same pro­por­tion as the license fees are across mem­ber­ship cat­e­go­ries.
(b) Within forty-five days of the first day of the month of pub­li­ca­tion of notice of adop­tion any mem­ber of the Bar may file with the Ex­ec­u­tive Director a writ­ten objec­tion to a particular po­si­tion on a leg­is­la­tive is­sue or brief. Fail­ure to ob­ject within this time pe­ri­od shall con­sti­tute a waiv­er of any right to object to the par­tic­u­lar leg­is­la­tive issue or filing of the brief.
(c) After a written ob­jec­tion has been received, the Ex­ec­u­tive Di­rec­tor shall prompt­ly de­ter­mine the pro rata amount of the ob­ject­ing mem­ber’s license fee at is­sue, and such amount shall be placed in es­crow pending deter­mi­na­tion of the mer­its of the objec­tion. Upon the dead­line for re­ceipt of written ob­jec­tions, the Board of Gover­nors shall have sixty days in which to decide wheth­er to give a pro rata refund to the ob­ject­ing member(s) or to refer the action to ar­bi­tra­tion.
(d) The arbitration panel shall be com­posed of three mem­bers of the Bar and shall be constituted as soon as prac­ti­ca­ble. The objecting member(s) shall se­lect one mem­ber of the ar­bi­tra­tion pan­el, the Bar shall choose the ­second panel mem­ber, and those two shall choose the third mem­ber. In the event the two members are unable to agree, the chief ad­min­is­tra­tive judge for ­common pleas court in the Fifth Judicial Circuit shall appoint the third mem­ber.
The Bar shall thereafter prepare a writ­ten response to the objection and serve a copy of the response on the objecting member(s). The pan­el shall there­af­ter con­fer and decide wheth­er the matters at issue are con­sti­tu­tion­al­ly ap­pro­pri­ate for fund­ing from the li­cense fees and, if not, wheth­er the pro rata refund was correctly com­put­ed.
The panel shall render a final writ­ten report to the objecting member(s) and the Board of Gov­er­nors within forty-five days of its con­sti­tu­tion. The de­ci­sion shall be binding as to the ob­ject­ing member(s) and the Bar. If the panel con­cludes the mat­ters at issue are appro­pri­ate­ly fund­ed from license fees, there shall be no re­fund and the Bar shall be free to expend the amount in es­crow. If the panel de­ter­mines that the mat­ters at issue are in­ap­pro­pri­ate­ly fund­ed from li­cense fees, the panel shall order a re­fund of the pro rata amount to the ob­ject­ing member(s). In the event a re­fund is or­dered, the Bar shall pro­vide such re­fund with­in thirty days of the date of the report, to­geth­er with in­ter­est cal­cu­lat­ed at the le­gal rate of interest.

Article VII. The Board of Governors

Section 7.1 Powers and Func­tions. Be­tween the meetings of the House of Del­e­gates, the Board of Governors may per­form, not in­con­sis­tent with any ac­tion taken by the House, the functions that the House itself might per­form. The Board shall develop meth­ods and spe­cif­ic plans to ac­com­plish the pur­pos­es of the Bar not in­con­sis­tent with the pol­i­cies or ac­tions of the House of Del­e­gates.

Section 7.2 Composition. The Board of Governors is com­posed of the Pres­i­dent, the Pres­i­dent-Elect, the ­Imme­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent, the Sec­re­tary, the Trea­sur­er, the president-elect and im­me­di­ate past pres­i­dent of the Young Lawyers ­Division, a representative of the Senior Lawyers Division, and the Chair­ of the House of Del­e­gates, all of whom shall be mem­bers ex officio, to­geth­er with two mem­bers (the “elect­ed mem­bers”) from each judi­cial region and two additional mem­bers (the “at large mem­bers”) who shall be elect­ed as here­in­af­ter pro­vid­ed.

Section 7.3 Eligibility and Term. To be eligible for election to the Board of Gov­er­nors a member must be a res­i­dent (as qual­i­fied by Sec­tion 2.2) of the ju­di­cial region from which he is elect­ed. The term of an elected mem­ber of the Board is three or­ga­ni­za­tion years, begin­ning the day after the close of the Annual Meeting following his elec­tion. The elected mem­bers of the Board shall serve stag­gered terms of three years each, i.e., two or three new mem­bers of the Board of Gov­er­nors shall be elect­ed each year to re­place the mem­bers whose terms ex­pire, and shall not be eli­gi­ble to suc­ceed them­selves ex­cept as pro­vid­ed in Sec­tion 7.4 be­low. The at large mem­bers shall serve stag­gered terms of two years each and shall not be eligible to suc­ceed them­selves. Before as­sum­ing the office of Pres­i­dent, the Pres­i­dent-Elect shall ap­point with the ap­prov­al of the Board of Gov­er­nors an at large mem­ber whose term will begin on the day after the close of the Annual Meeting. The representative from the Senior Lawyers Division shall serve a term of two years and shall be elected by a vote of two-thirds or more of the Division’s Executive Council.

Section 7.4 Vacancies. A va­can­cy in the position of an elected mem­ber, in­clud­ing when the mem­ber no long­er re­sides in the judicial region from which he was elected, of the Board of Gov­er­nors shall be filled for the un­ex­pired term by an eligible mem­ber of the Bar elected by the House of Del­e­gates. A per­son so elect­ed shall be el­i­gi­ble to be re-elected for a full term if he will have served less than twen­ty-four months at the time the un­ex­pired term for which he was elect­ed ter­mi­nates. A vacancy in the position of an at large member of the Board of Gov­er­nors shall be filled for the un­ex­pired term by an eligible member of the Bar elected by the Board of Governors. In the event that the immediate past president of the Young Lawyers Division declines or is unable to serve, the Division’s Executive Council shall designate the person to fill the vacancy.

Section 7.5 Meetings. The Board of Gov­er­nors shall meet at least four times in each or­ga­ni­za­tion­al year at such times and plac­es as the Board may de­ter­mine. Spe­cial meet­ings may be held at the call of the Pres­i­dent and shall be called by the Sec­re­tary upon the re­quest of three or more mem­bers of the Board of Gov­er­nors. At any meeting a majority of the Board of Gov­er­nors shall con­sti­tute a quo­rum.

Section 7.6 Appropriation of Funds. An annual budget shall be ­prepared by the Board of Gov­er­nors and submitted to the House of ­Delegates each year for ap­prov­al.

Section 7.7 Financial Review. There shall be an annual review or audit of the Bar’s financial records by a certified public accountant selected by the Board of Governors.

Article VIII. Officers and Other Personnel

Section 8.1 General. The of­fic­ers of the Bar are the Pres­i­dent, the President-Elect, the Chair of the House of Delegates, the Sec­re­tary, and the Treasur­er. The Board of Gov­er­nors may appoint, elect, or employ and pre­scribe the duties of an Executive Director and such other personnel as the Board deems necessary to carry on the work of the Bar, each of whom shall serve at the pleasure of the Board.

Section 8.2 Terms.
(a) The term of office of the Pres­i­dent, the Pres­i­dent-Elect, the Secretary and the Trea­sur­er shall be one year be­gin­ning the day after the close of the Annual Meeting fol­low­ing elec­tion. The Pres­i­dent-Elect au­to­mat­i­cal­ly succeeds to the office of the Pres­i­dent. No person who has served as Pres­i­dent of the Bar or of the South Carolina Bar As­so­ci­a­tion or of the South Caro­li­na State Bar shall be el­i­gi­ble for election to the Of­fice of Pres­i­dent or Pres­i­dent-Elect.
(b) The term of office of the Chair­ of the House of Del­e­gates shall be two orga­ni­za­tion­al years be­gin­ning the day after the close of the Annual Meeting fol­low­ing elec­tion. During his first term of of­fice, he may not hold any other office in the Bar. He is not again eligible for the office of Chair­ of the House.

Section 8.3 Vacancies. If the of­fice of President becomes va­cant, the Pres­i­dent-Elect shall be­come Pres­i­dent for the un­ex­pired term and for the term next fol­low­ing. If the office of Pres­i­dent-Elect shall be­come va­cant, the House of Del­e­gates shall convene at the call of the Board of Gov­er­nors and elect a ­succes­sor. In the event that the of­fice of Pres­i­dent be­comes va­cant at the time the of­fice of Pres­i­dent-Elect is also vacant, the Board of Gov­er­nors shall fill the of­fice of Pres­i­dent from among its mem­bers un­til the House of Del­e­gates can be con­vened to elect a suc­ces­sor. If any office other than that of the President or Pres­i­dent-Elect shall become vacant, or if a va­can­cy oc­curs in the posi­tion of State Bar Del­e­gate to the Amer­i­can Bar As­so­ci­a­tion, the of­fice or po­si­tion shall be filled by the Board of Gov­er­nors for the re­main­der of the term.

Article IX. Election of Officers, Governors and State Bar Del­e­gates

Section 9.1 Nominations. Nom­i­na­tions for the offices of President-Elect, Sec­re­tary, Treasurer, and Chair of the House of Delegates, for the elect­ed mem­bers of the Board of Gov­er­nors, and for the State Bar Del­e­gates to the Amer­i­can Bar As­so­ci­a­tion shall be made only as pro­vid­ed in this Ar­ti­cle.

Section 9.2 Nominating Committee.
(a) There shall be a Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee com­prised of the Im­me­di­ate Past Pres­i­dent, who shall be the Chair­, and two elected Nom­i­nat­ing Delegates from each ju­di­cial re­gion. The eight elect­ed Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gates shall serve stag­gered terms of three years each com­menc­ing the first day of July fol­low­ing their elec­tion. Two or three Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gates shall be elect­ed by the House of Del­e­gates each year to suc­ceed the Nom­i­nat­ing Delegates whose terms expire that year. At the time of their election Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gates shall be elect­ed mem­bers of the House of Del­e­gates who re­side in the same ju­di­cial region as the Del­e­gates whom they succeed. No Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gate shall be el­i­gi­ble to suc­ceed him­self. In the event of a ­vacancy among the elect­ed Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gates, in­clud­ing when a Dele­gate is no long­er a regular mem­ber or no longer resides in the judicial region for which he was elect­ed, the House of Del­e­gates at its next meet­ing shall elect a suc­ces­sor for the un­ex­pired term.
(b) Election of Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gates shall be supervised by the Chair­ of the House of Del­e­gates, the Pres­i­dent, and the Pres­i­dent-Elect. If there are two or more nom­i­nees for the position of Nom­i­nat­ing Delegate from a judicial re­gion, the Nom­i­nat­ing Del­e­gate shall be elect­ed by plu­ral­i­ty of the votes cast.

Section 9.3 Nom­i­nating ­Pro­ce­dure.
(a) On or before No­vem­ber 15 of each year the Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee shall meet at a time and place des­ig­nat­ed by its Chair­ and shall prompt­ly make nom­i­na­tions by ma­jor­i­ty vote for the offic­es of Pres­i­dent-Elect, Secretary, and Trea­sur­er, the members of the Board of Gov­er­nors and ABA State Bar Delegates to be elected in that year, and in every al­ter­nate year the of­fice of Chair­ of the House of Del­e­gates. Only Cir­cuit Del­e­gates shall be el­i­gi­ble for nom­i­na­tion to the of­fice of Chair­ of the House of Del­e­gates. No one shall be el­i­gi­ble to be nom­i­nat­ed or elect­ed as State Bar Del­e­gate who will at the time of elec­tion have served in such ca­pac­i­ty for four years.
(b) The Board of Gov­er­nors shall, on or before the fol­low­ing De­cem­ber 15, cause the name of each nom­i­nee se­lect­ed by the Nom­i­nat­ing Com­mit­tee to be pub­lished. On or before the fol­low­ing January 15, twenty-five or more mem­bers who are entitled to vote may file with the Board of Gov­er­nors a signed petition nom­i­nat­ing a can­di­date or ­candi­dates for any or all offices to be filled. On January 15, the nom­i­nations shall be closed. The Board of Gov­er­nors shall cause the name of each nom­i­nee to be pub­lished.
(c) Any ABA State Bar Delegate who must be a young lawyer shall not be nominated as set forth above. One or more nominees shall be chosen by vote of the Young Lawyers Division Executive Council.

Section 9.4 Election of Of­fic­ers, Governors and State Bar Del­e­gates.
(a) If there is only one nom­i­nee for Pres­i­dent-Elect or Sec­re­tary or Trea­sur­er or Chair of the House of Delegates or Gov­er­nor or State Bar Del­e­gate, such nom­i­nee shall be con­sid­ered elect­ed auto­mat­i­cal­ly at the time the nom­i­na­tions are closed. The Board of Governors shall elect the ABA State Bar Delegate nominated under section 9.3(c).
(b) If more than one person is nominat­ed for any such office or po­si­tion, bal­lots con­tain­ing the names of all nom­i­nees for each con­test­ed po­si­tion shall be distributed to all mem­bers who are el­i­gi­ble to vote at the same time as ­ballots for con­test­ed Circuit Delegate elec­tions are dis­trib­ut­ed. The nom­i­nee who re­ceives the greatest num­ber of votes for each office or position shall be declared elect­ed. In the event of a tie vote, the House of Delegates shall determine which of those tied nominees shall serve.
(c) The Board of Gov­er­nors shall super­vise all such elections and shall deter­mine, announce, and pub­lish the re­sults of each election. Elections may be conducted electronically.

Article X. Divisions, Sec­tions, Committees and Affiliates

Section 10.1 Divisions. There shall be a Young Law­yers Division and a Senior Lawyers Di­vi­sion with mem­ber­ship re­quire­ments as set forth in the bylaws adopt­ed pursuant to Article XI.

Section 10.2 Sections. Sections may be created, existing sections may be com­bined or discontinued, or the name of a section may be changed by a ma­jor­i­ty vote of the members present of the House of Del­e­gates at any an­nu­al or spe­cial­ly called meeting in the manner pre­scribed by the By­laws.

Section 10.3 Committees. Com­mit­tees, boards, task forces and com­mis­sions may be created by the Board of Gov­er­nors to carry on the work of the Bar and to pro­mote its pur­pos­es.

Section 10.4 Affiliates. There shall be Lawyer Affiliates and Law Student Affiliates with the Bar. A lawyer who is not admitted to practice law in South Carolina but who is licensed to practice law before the highest court of another state or jurisdiction of the United States, or who has retired from the practice before such court, may become a Lawyer Affiliate under such terms and conditions as may be specified in the Bylaws. A lawyer who is suspended or disbarred from the practice of law in any jurisdiction may not become a Lawyer Affiliate. A law student enrolled at a law school that has been approved or provisionally approved by the Council of Legal Education of the American Bar Association may become a Law Student Affiliate under such terms and conditions as may be specified in the Bylaws. Affiliation with the Bar does not confer any privilege to practice law in South Carolina, and affiliates are not members of the South Carolina Bar.

Article XI. The Bylaws

Section 11.1 Adoption and Amendment. The House of Del­e­gates may adopt By­laws not in­con­sis­tent with this Con­sti­tu­tion to fur­ther the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the Bar. The By­laws shall be adopted, and may be amended, at any annual or a spe­cial meeting by vote of a ma­jor­i­ty of the Del­e­gates present at the meet­ing. Not later than thirty days before the meet­ing at which such an amend­ment or amend­ments will be con­sid­ered, any mem­ber of the Bar desiring to pro­pose an amend­ment shall fur­nish to the Board of Gov­er­nors a copy there­of. There­af­ter the Board of Gov­er­nors shall, not less than fifteen days be­fore said meet­ing, give notice of the sub­stance of the pro­posed amend­ment to all ­members of the Bar. Un­less oth­er­wise pro­vid­ed, an amend­ment is effective upon the ad­journ­ment of the meet­ing at which it is adopted.

Section 11.2 Correction. Upon the adop­tion of an amend­ment to the Bylaws, the Secretary may correct punc­tu­a­tion, grammar, or num­ber­ing where ap­pro­pri­ate in the Bylaws if the cor­rec­tion does not change the meaning.

Article XII. Amend­ment of Constitution

Section 12.1 Amendment. At any annual or special meeting of the Bar this Constitution may be amended upon concurrent votes of at least two-thirds of the members present who are entitled to vote in the Assembly and two-thirds of the members present in the House of Delegates. If the Assembly lacks a quorum when an amendment is scheduled to be considered, the action of the House on the amendment shall be controlling without Assembly action. If the Assembly and the House disagree, either may direct by two-thirds vote that the proposed amendment be submitted to all members of the Bar who are entitled to vote. To become effective, however, an amendment so referred must be adopted by two-thirds of the members voting. Not later than sixty days before the meeting at which the amendment or amendments will be considered, any member of the Bar desiring to propose an amendment shall furnish to the Board of Governors a copy thereof and thereafter the Board of Governors shall, not less than fifteen days before said meeting, give written notice to all members of the Bar of the proposed amendment or amendments. Amendments so approved shall be forthwith submitted to the South Carolina Supreme Court and shall become effective upon approval by it.

Section 12.2 Correction. Upon adop­tion of an amendment to this Con­sti­tu­tion, the Secretary may cor­rect punc­tu­a­tion, gram­mar, or num­ber­ing where ap­pro­pri­ate in the Con­sti­tu­tion, if the cor­rec­tion does not change the mean­ing, and he may make con­form­ing chang­es in the Bylaws if need­ed.