N.Y. Judiciary Law § 53: Rule-making power of court of appeals as to admission of attorneys and counsellors

§ 53. Rule-making power of court of appeals as to admission of

attorneys and counsellors. 1. The court of appeals may from time to time

adopt, amend, or rescind rules not inconsistent with the constitution or

statutes of the state, regulating the admission of attorneys and

counsellors at law, to practice in all the courts of record of the

state.

2. The court may make such provisions as it shall deem proper for

admission to practice as attorneys and counsellors, of persons who have

been admitted to practice in other states or countries.

3. The court shall prescribe rules providing for a uniform system of

examination of candidates for admission to practice as attorneys and

counsellors, which shall govern the state board of law examiners in the

performance of its duties. The court shall not by its rules cause to be

barred from examination or, upon successful completion of the

examination process, subsequent admission to the state bar, provided he

or she shall otherwise meet any requirements for admission, any person

who is currently admitted to practice in the jurisdiction of another

state and has received a degree from a law school which qualifies such

person to practice law in such state, other than a law school which

grants credit for correspondence courses, provided that such person has

been engaged in the actual practice of law in the state in which they

are admitted for no less than five years.

4. The rules established by the court of appeals, touching the

admission of attorneys and counsellors to practice in the courts of

record of the state, shall not be changed or amended, except by a

majority of the judges of that court. A copy of each amendment to such

rules must, within five days after it is adopted, be filed in the office

of the secretary of state.

5. Nothing contained in this chapter prevents the court of appeals

from dispensing, in the rules established by it, with the whole or any

part of the stated period of clerkship required from an applicant, or

with the examination where the applicant is a graduate of the Albany law

school, Union university, or of the New York university school of law,

or of the school of law of Columbia university, or of the university of

Buffalo school of law, or of the Cornell law school, or of the Syracuse

university college of law, or of the Brooklyn law school, or of the

Fordham university school of law, or of any law school, duly registered

by the regents of the university of the state of New York which requires

a three year course for graduation and produces his diploma upon his

application for admission to practice.

6. Nothing contained in this chapter prevents the court of appeals

from adopting rules for the licensing, as a legal consultant, without

examination and without regard to citizenship, of a person admitted to

practice in a foreign country as an attorney or counsellor or the

equivalent. Any person so licensed shall not practice in the courts of

the state but may render legal services in the state within limitations

prescribed in rules adopted by the court of appeals and shall subject to

the foregoing be governed by the provisions of section ninety and

article fifteen of this chapter.