Licensed Legal Consultants are foreign attorneys who may render certain legal services in the State within the provisions of 22 NYCRR Part 521. On Tuesday the First Department decided a case in which it held that the attorney disciplinary mechanism must be applied to license legal consultants as well - Matter of Antoine, 2007 NY Slip Op 07935. In that case, the Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the First Department sought to immediately revoke a legal consultant's license without filing any formal charges or holding a hearing after the consultant made certain false representations that he was admitted to practice in New York, and held himself out as an attorney.
The First Department found that to do so was impermissible. Citing 22 NYCRR 610.7 and 22 NYCRR 521.5, the Court stated that the Committee must follow the same procedures in disciplining legal consultants as for attorneys, namely it must file formal disciplinary charges and hold a hearing before a Referee on those charges.
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