Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association

What Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association does

The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit professional bar association founded in 1990 and headquartered in Norman, Oklahoma, dedicated to representing individual investors in disputes with the securities industry. PIABA is composed primarily of securities fraud lawyers and investor advocates who specialize in securities arbitration and litigation, with nearly 400 members worldwide serving investors across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The organization pursues four mission pillars: promoting fairness in alternative dispute resolution, advocating for investor protections, supporting member professional development, and educating the public on investment issues.

PIABA's core products include the Find an Attorney online directory, which routes investor inquiries to vetted member attorneys; the PIABA Bar Journal, an online professional publication covering securities law and arbitration developments; and a tiered Expert/Mediator Directory that connects member attorneys with litigation-support professionals. Members also receive committee participation, list-serve access, and member-only website resources. Supplementary offerings include the James E. Beckley Law Student Scholarship, the PIABA Foundation, formal comment letters to the SEC, FINRA, and the Department of Labor, amicus briefs, and biannual professional meetings (Annual Meeting and Midyear Meeting with Hill Day advocacy in Washington, D.C.).

The business model is subscription-based and membership-driven, with annual dues ranging from $80 (Law Student) to $625 (Regular Member), plus a separate Expert/Mediator tier ranging from $750 (Bronze) to $5,000 (Platinum). Revenue is supplemented by event registration fees, ancillary directory advertising, and donations. Distribution is anchored by the public-facing PIABA website and the Find an Attorney directory, complemented by in-person advocacy events and regulatory engagement with Congress and federal securities regulators.

Name

Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association

Legal name

Public Investors Advocate Bar Association

Website

https://piaba.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1990

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) is a 501(c)(6) nonprofit professional bar association of nearly 400 securities fraud attorneys that advocates for investor protections, provides a public Find an Attorney directory, and publishes the PIABA Bar Journal. It generates revenue primarily through tiered annual membership dues ranging from $80 to $625.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Norman

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: PIABA generates revenue through annual membership dues from multiple membership tiers including Regular, Young, Retiree, Regulator, Paralegal, Associate, and Law Student members. Dues range from $80 to $625 annually depending on membership class.
2. Expert/Mediator Membership: Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze tier memberships for experts and mediators seeking visibility among PIABA's attorney network, ranging from $750 to $5,000 annually.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

PIABA operates as a national membership-based bar association serving securities fraud and investor-protection attorneys. It provides tiered membership programs, an online attorney referral directory, a professional legal journal (PIABA Bar Journal), expert/mediator listings, in-person conferences, and regulatory advocacy through comment letters and amicus briefs to advance investor rights.

Product overview

PIABA operates as a professional bar association offering a unified portfolio of member services centered on investor protection and securities dispute resolution. The core offerings include the PIABA Bar Journal (an online legal publication), the Find an Attorney directory (connecting investors with qualified securities fraud lawyers), and the Expert/Mediator Directory (linking members with litigation support professionals). These are supported by tiered membership programs (Regular, Young, Retiree, Regulator, Law Student, Paralegal, Associate, and Educator), advocacy products (Comment Letters and Amicus Briefs), the James E. Beckley Law Student Scholarship, and annual events (Annual Meeting and Midyear Meeting). The association serves as the primary professional community and resource hub for securities fraud attorneys representing investors in arbitration and litigation.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PIABA Membership

Quantifiable outcome

• Billions of dollars recovered for hundreds of thousands of victims of securities fraud
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Congress and Congressional StaffcoreOthers · 1 January 1990PIABA has developed beneficial relationships with members of Congress and their staff. For the last decade, members have traveled to Washington DC and attended hundreds of meetings with members of Congress to advance investor protection causes.
• SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission)coreOthersPIABA maintains relationships with SEC Commissioners to advocate for investor protections and regulatory reform.
• FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority)coreOthersPIABA engages with FINRA executives on investor protection issues and arbitration process improvements.
• NASAA (North American Securities Administrators Association)coreOthersPIABA works with state securities regulators through NASAA to advocate for investor rights and regulatory consistency.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• Avvo: Avvo is a consumer-facing online legal directory that, like PIABA's Find an Attorney tool, connects prospective clients with attorneys by practice area and location. It represents the broader digital marketplace competing with PIABA's referral directory for investor-side securities cases.

Broad incumbents

• American Bar Association: The ABA is the largest U.S. legal professional association, offering tiered membership, an extensive journal portfolio, and federal advocacy. While not niche to investor-side securities work, it competes for the same practicing-attorney dues dollar and operates a far broader version of PIABA's membership-publication-advocacy model.
• Lawyers.com: Lawyers.com is a long-running general-purpose attorney directory operated by Martindale-Avvo. As a scaled, consumer-discovery platform it directly competes with the directory function of PIABA's Find an Attorney, but at a much broader practice-area footprint.

Direct peers

• American Association for Justice: AAJ (formerly ATLA) is the largest national membership organization for plaintiff trial lawyers, running a parallel model of tiered membership dues, advocacy before Congress, and member-only publications. It is the closest structural analogue to PIABA in the broader plaintiff bar.
• National Consumer Law Center: NCLC is a consumer advocacy organization that, like PIABA, serves as a hub for attorneys representing consumers against financial misconduct — producing publications, comment letters, and resources that compete for the same membership mindshare among consumer-financial litigators.
• National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers: NACDL is a specialty bar association for criminal defense lawyers using the same dues-funded, advocacy-driven, journal-publishing membership model that PIABA applies to securities fraud practitioners.
• National Employment Lawyers Association: NELA is a specialty bar association for plaintiff-side employment lawyers that mirrors PIABA's structure: tiered membership, plaintiff-only vetting, regular publications, and advocacy engagement with federal agencies. Its operating model is directly comparable.
• National Association of Consumer Advocates: NACA is a membership-based bar association for consumer protection attorneys that, like PIABA, vets members for plaintiff-side focus, advocates before state and federal regulators, and provides a member directory and educational resources for its constituency.
• Trial Lawyers for Public Justice: An advocacy-driven plaintiff bar association whose mission and dues-funded, member-vetted model closely resemble PIABA's investor-protection specialty bar.
• Public Justice: Public Justice is a national public interest law organization that recruits attorney members for impact litigation and amicus briefs in consumer and financial cases. It overlaps with PIABA's plaintiff-side advocacy mission and shares the dues-and-grant funding base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/piaba
• Xx.com/PIABANews
• Facebookfacebook.com/PIABANews

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association