The Norfolk Law Association was incorporated in 1887. Its principal function in accordance with certain requirements of the Law Society of Upper Canada at that time was to maintain a law library for the use of local and visiting lawyers and the judiciary. At incorporation the County of Norfolk owned the relatively new courthouse, completed in 1864, and permission of the County Council was sought and granted to maintain the library in the courthouse. The library was maintained thereafter in that location by the association until 1973 when it was moved to the present courthouse constructed in 1972-73. The library is not open to the public.​

 

The association provides facilities for continuing legal education including satellite broadcasts, video replays and presentations made by the members themselves. These assist the local bar to maintain not only a level of knowledge required by the Law Society but also to foster the expertise that an individual lawyer requires for his or her particular practice. The library provides computer access to both private and public legal sources, those of legal publishers and of government, which provide legal (case) reports, statutes and other legal materials for which the association pays subscription fees. Also, all the resources of the internet are available although this resource is one also maintained by the county’s legal firms.

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​Through the efforts of its members who participate voluntarily, the association is represented in related organizations, which in turn make representations to the Law Society and to the government and both as to the governance of the profession and with respect to the law itself. Matters of a local concern are dealt with by committees, standing or otherwise, or by special meetings of the association and sometimes both.