N.Y. Judiciary Law § 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.