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.
Last modified: February 3, 2019