Bill Text: NY S01998 | 2011-2012 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides that practicing or appearing as an attorney-at-law without being admitted and registered shall be a class E felony instead of a misdemeanor.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Republican 4-2)
Status: (Passed) 2012-12-12 - APPROVAL MEMO.20 [S01998 Detail]
Download: New_York-2011-S01998-Introduced.html
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
1998
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
I N S E N A T E
January 14, 2011
___________
Introduced by Sens. FUSCHILLO, LARKIN, SALAND -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Judici-
ary
AN ACT to amend the judiciary law, in relation to practicing or appear-
ing as an attorney-at-law without being admitted and registered
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
1 Section 1. Section 478 of the judiciary law, as amended by chapter 201
2 of the laws of 1993, is amended to read as follows:
3 S 478. Practicing or appearing as attorney-at-law without being admit-
4 ted and registered. It shall be unlawful for any natural person to prac-
5 tice or appear as an attorney-at-law or as an attorney and counselor-at-
6 law for a person other than himself OR HERSELF in a court of record in
7 this state, or to furnish attorneys or counsel or an attorney and coun-
8 sel to render legal services, or to hold himself OR HERSELF out to the
9 public as being entitled to practice law as aforesaid, or in any other
10 manner, or to assume to be an attorney or counselor-at-law, or to
11 assume, use, or advertise the title of lawyer, or attorney and counse-
12 lor-at-law, or attorney-at-law or counselor-at-law, or attorney, or
13 counselor, or attorney and counselor, or equivalent terms in any
14 language, in such manner as to convey the impression that he OR SHE is a
15 legal practitioner of law or in any manner to advertise that he OR SHE
16 either alone or together with any other persons or person has, owns,
17 conducts or maintains a law office or law and collection office, or
18 office of any kind for the practice of law, without having first been
19 duly and regularly licensed and admitted to practice law in the courts
20 of record of this state, and without having taken the constitutional
21 oath. Provided, however, that nothing in this section shall be held to
22 apply (1) to officers of societies for the prevention of cruelty to
23 animals, duly appointed, when exercising the special powers conferred
24 upon such corporations under section fourteen hundred three of the not-
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD00471-02-1
S. 1998 2
1 for-profit corporation law; or (2) to law students who have completed at
2 least two semesters of law school or persons who have graduated from a
3 law school, who have taken the examination for admittance to practice
4 law in the courts of record in the state immediately available after
5 graduation from law school, or the examination immediately available
6 after being notified by the board of law examiners that they failed to
7 pass said exam, and who have not been notified by the board of law exam-
8 iners that they have failed to pass two such examinations, acting under
9 the supervision of a legal aid organization when such students and
10 persons are acting under a program approved by the appellate division of
11 the supreme court of the department in which the principal office of
12 such organization is located and specifying the extent to which such
13 students and persons may engage in activities otherwise prohibited by
14 this statute; or (3) to law students who have completed at least two
15 semesters of law school, or to persons who have graduated from a law
16 school approved pursuant to the rules of the court of appeals for the
17 admission of attorneys and counselors-at-law and who have taken the
18 examination for admission to practice as an attorney and counselor-at-
19 law immediately available after graduation from law school or the exam-
20 ination immediately available after being notified by the board of law
21 examiners that they failed to pass said exam, and who have not been
22 notified by the board of law examiners that they have failed to pass two
23 such examinations, when such students or persons are acting under the
24 supervision of the state or a subdivision thereof or of any officer or
25 agency of the state or a subdivision thereof, pursuant to a program
26 approved by the appellate division of the supreme court of the depart-
27 ment within which such activities are taking place and specifying the
28 extent to which they may engage in activities otherwise prohibited by
29 this statute and those powers of the supervising governmental entity or
30 officer in connection with which they may engage in such activities; OR
31 (4) AN ATTORNEY AND COUNSELOR-AT-LAW OR THE EQUIVALENT WHO IS ADMITTED
32 TO THE BAR IN ANOTHER STATE, TERRITORY, DISTRICT OR FOREIGN COUNTRY AND
33 WHO HAS BEEN ADMITTED TO PRACTICE PRO HAC VICE IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK.
34 ANY PERSON VIOLATING THE PROVISIONS OF THIS SECTION SHALL BE GUILTY OF
35 A CLASS E FELONY.
36 S 2. Section 485 of the judiciary law, as added by chapter 1031 of the
37 laws of 1965, is amended to read as follows:
38 S 485. Violation of certain preceding sections a misdemeanor. Any
39 person violating the provisions of [sections four hundred seventy-
40 eight,] SECTION four hundred seventy-nine, four hundred eighty, four
41 hundred eighty-one, four hundred eighty-two, four hundred eighty-three
42 or four hundred eighty-four OF THIS ARTICLE, shall be guilty of a misde-
43 meanor.
44 S 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
45 have become a law.
