Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar

In Goldfarb v. Virginia State Bar, the U.S. Supreme Court ended the exemption for learned professionals like lawyers from application of the antitrust laws. 421 U.S. 773 (1975). But the U.S. Supreme Court did allow for the application of less stringent rules to learned professions.

Specifically, the Goldfarb case involved a challenge to a minimum fee schedule established by a county bar association for practicing attorneys, and how attorneys could be disciplined by the state bar for violating those minimum rates. The Court invalidated this fee schedule as "essentially a private anticompetitive activity." The Court noted that neither Virginia law nor the rules of its Supreme Court mandated minimum fees.