New York Laws
Article 15 - Attorneys and Counsellors
478 - Practicing or Appearing as Attorney-at-Law Without Being Admitted and Registered.

§ 478. Practicing or appearing as attorney-at-law without being
admitted and registered. It shall be unlawful for any natural person to
practice or appear as an attorney-at-law or as an attorney and
counselor-at-law for a person other than himself or herself in a court
of record in this state, or to furnish attorneys or counsel or an
attorney and counsel to render legal services, or to hold himself or
herself out to the public as being entitled to practice law as
aforesaid, or in any other manner, or to assume to be an attorney or
counselor-at-law, or to assume, use, or advertise the title of lawyer,
or attorney and counselor-at-law, or attorney-at-law or
counselor-at-law, or attorney, or counselor, or attorney and counselor,
or equivalent terms in any language, in such manner as to convey the
impression that he or she is a legal practitioner of law or in any
manner to advertise that he or she either alone or together with any
other persons or person has, owns, conducts or maintains a law office or
law and collection office, or office of any kind for the practice of
law, without having first been duly and regularly licensed and admitted
to practice law in the courts of record of this state, and without
having taken the constitutional oath. Provided, however, that nothing in
this section shall be held to apply (1) to officers of societies for the
prevention of cruelty to animals, duly appointed, when exercising the
special powers conferred upon such corporations under section fourteen
hundred three of the not-for-profit corporation law; or (2) to law
students who have completed at least two semesters of law school or
persons who have graduated from a law school, who have taken the
examination for admittance to practice law in the courts of record in
the state immediately available after graduation from law school, or the
examination immediately available after being notified by the board of
law examiners that they failed to pass said exam, and who have not been
notified by the board of law examiners that they have failed to pass two
such examinations, acting under the supervision of a legal aid
organization when such students and persons are acting under a program
approved by the appellate division of the supreme court of the
department in which the principal office of such organization is located
and specifying the extent to which such students and persons may engage
in activities otherwise prohibited by this statute; or (3) to law
students who have completed at least two semesters of law school, or to
persons who have graduated from a law school approved pursuant to the
rules of the court of appeals for the admission of attorneys and
counselors-at-law and who have taken the examination for admission to
practice as an attorney and counselor-at-law immediately available after
graduation from law school or the examination immediately available
after being notified by the board of law examiners that they failed to
pass said exam, and who have not been notified by the board of law
examiners that they have failed to pass two such examinations, when such
students or persons are acting under the supervision of the state or a
subdivision thereof or of any officer or agency of the state or a
subdivision thereof, pursuant to a program approved by the appellate
division of the supreme court of the department within which such
activities are taking place and specifying the extent to which they may
engage in activities otherwise prohibited by this statute and those
powers of the supervising governmental entity or officer in connection
with which they may engage in such activities; or (4) an attorney and
counselor-at-law or the equivalent who is admitted to the bar in another
state, territory, district or foreign country and who has been admitted
to practice pro hac vice in the state of New York within the limitations
prescribed in the rules of the court of appeals; or (5) an attorney
licensed as a legal consultant under rules adopted by the court of

appeals pursuant to subdivision six of section fifty-three of this
chapter and rendering legal services in the state within limitations
prescribed in such rules.

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