On December 10, 2015 the Court of Appeals approved Part 522 (Foreign In-House Lawyers) and Part 523 (Temporary Practice).

The Court enacted 22 NYCRR §523 (Section 523), permitting temporary practice in New York  (both by US lawyers and foreign lawyers). The approval – which has been advocated, among the others, by the NYSBA for 15 years — has been greeted with enthusiasm by practitioners.

Before December 10, New York did not have a version of ABA Model Rule 5.5 (“multijurisdictional practice”), so technically every practice of law – however limited – by non-NY lawyers in NY, was unauthorized practice.

The amendment to Section 522 (in-house registration rule) has the effect to allow registration also of non-US in-house counsel, provided that they

“member[s] in good standing of a recognized legal profession in a foreign non-United States jurisdiction, the members of which are admitted to practice as lawyers or counselors at law or the equivalent and subject to effective regulation by a duly constituted professional body or public authority.”

I had followed with attention the approval of those rules because I had the privilege to serve in the subcommittee of COSAC (Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct) of NYSBA responsible for drafting a report commenting the first version of the rules by the Court.

For an in-depth analysis of the new rules, see fellow COSAC-member Ronald C. Minkoff’s fine article: Miracle on Eagle Street: New York’s Temporary Practice Rule.

For more information, Francesca Giannoni-Crystal