The Finnish Bar Association is an organization pertaining to public law, which is regulated by the The Act on Advocates of 1958. The organization was preceded by a registered association with the same name. All members of both organizations are and always have been lawyers.

The Bar Association has about 1850 members, who are thus designated "advocates" (in Finnish: asianajaja; in Swedish: advokat). Law firms additionally employ about 600 associates. Of the advocates, about 120 are public legal advisers. Legal aid offices also employ more than hundred legal advisers who are not members of the Bar Association.

In Finland practically anybody can advise on and assist in legal matters, also professionally. However, there are very few such advisers who have not taken a Master of Laws degree.

Practising lawyers who are not members of the Bar Association may perhaps not meet the requirements for an advocate, or may prefer not to submit to the obligations of an advocate. Lawyers who have recently graduated from university, for instance, or lawyers who have just started practising or transferred from other fields of law, do not fulfill the requirements, neither do part-time lawyers.

A lawyer who has been dismissed from the Bar Association owing to disciplinary measures can still pursue his profession under other professional title; in this case, however, such a lawyer practises without the obligations of an advocate and outside the supervision of the Bar Association.