New York Local Counsel for Firms With Recurring Matters.
Your New York sponsor is not a signature on a motion. Under 22 NYCRR 520.11(c) that attorney is the attorney of record in your case. That is a decision to make once, deliberately, and not one to hand to whoever answers the phone on the day a motion is due.
The Rule Says Your Sponsor Is the Attorney of Record.
Most out-of-state firms treat New York local counsel as a procedural errand. Someone in the office finds a New York attorney, that attorney signs an affidavit, the motion goes in, and nobody thinks about it again. The rule does not describe that arrangement.
22 NYCRR 520.11(c), Association of New York counsel. "No attorney may be admitted pro hac vice pursuant to paragraph (a)(1) of this section to participate in pre-trial or trial proceedings unless he or she is associated with an attorney who is a member in good standing of the New York bar, who shall be the attorney of record in the matter."
Read the last clause again. The New York attorney does not assist the attorney of record. The New York attorney is the attorney of record. Every obligation that attaches to that role in a New York case attaches to your sponsor, and it attaches from the moment the motion is granted through the end of the matter.
That changes what your firm is actually buying. You are not buying a motion. You are choosing who will hold the attorney of record position on your New York cases, whose name the court will call at the calendar call, and whose judgment New York will hold accountable if something goes wrong. Firms that shop that decision by price, one motion at a time, are shopping the wrong thing.
Why the Per-Motion Search Costs You Time.
Finding a New York sponsor is not difficult. Finding one for the second time, under a deadline, with no prior relationship, is where firms lose days they did not budget.
Every new sponsor is a new diligence exercise. Your firm confirms the attorney is admitted where the case sits, and in a federal matter that he is admitted in the right district, because admission in the Southern District of New York is not admission in the Eastern District. Your firm negotiates terms and papers a fresh engagement. Someone walks a stranger through the posture and the deadline. Then the questions come back, and they are the same questions your firm answered the last time, to someone else.
The certificate of good standing is where that cost is easiest to see. Joint Local Civil Rule 1.3(k) requires a certificate issued within 30 days of filing. Most states will not issue one the same day, and a number of states require the certificate from the clerk of the state's highest court rather than from the state bar, which is the version that gets a motion bounced. A sponsor who has filed for your firm before raises the certificate in the first email. A sponsor meeting your firm for the first time raises it when he opens the package, which may be a week later, against a 30-day window.
None of that is about knowing your case. It is about not starting over. A firm that has already settled who its New York attorney of record is has removed a step that only ever surfaces when the clock is already running.
Standing Relationship, Per-Matter Engagement.
Here is what our office means by a standing relationship, stated plainly so there is nothing to decode.
Your firm does not prepay for cases it does not have. There is no annual retainer, no bundle, and no minimum. We do not ask a firm to guess how many New York matters it will open next year, because that is a question no litigator can answer honestly.
Each matter is its own engagement. When a New York case arrives, your firm opens a matter with our office and receives an engagement letter for that case. Between matters, nothing is owed and nothing is running.
What is standing is the arrangement itself. Your firm knows in advance who its New York attorney of record is, that he is admitted in the state courts and in both federal districts here, and that the terms were settled before the deadline arrived rather than during it. The first call on a new matter is about the case, not about whether we are available and what it costs.
Our office is co-counsel, not a signature. New York places real responsibility on the attorney of record, and that responsibility cannot be delegated back to the firm that hired us. Our office exercises independent judgment on anything it signs, files, or appears on, and says so when we disagree. Your firm keeps the client, keeps the strategy, and runs the case. We hold the position New York requires someone to hold, and we hold it properly.
State and Federal, From One Office.
Frederic R. Abramson was admitted in New York in November 1997 and has practiced here for 28 years. He is admitted in both the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York under bar number FA3918, which means one office can sponsor your firm in New York State court and in either federal district without a second search and a second set of terms.
The federal side has its own mechanics. Under joint Local Civil Rule 1.3(i), an attorney in good standing in any state or United States district court may be permitted to try or argue a particular case upon motion. Rule 1.3(j) requires that the motion be filed electronically on the court's ECF system after requesting pro hac vice filing privileges through PACER, and Rule 1.3(k) requires the 30-day certificate described above. Rule 1.3(l) then draws the line that matters most to your firm: "Only an attorney who has been so admitted or who is a member of the bar of this court may enter appearances for parties, sign stipulations, or receive payments on judgments, decrees, or orders." Until your motion is granted, someone admitted here has to carry the case.
What the Engagement Covers.
The pro hac vice motion is where the engagement begins rather than where it ends. Our office covers preliminary conferences, compliance conferences, note of issue conferences, and motion calendars in New York County, Kings County, Bronx County, Queens County, Richmond County, Nassau County, Suffolk County, Westchester County, and Orange County. We take and defend depositions, and we handle examinations under oath and 50-h hearings. When your firm needs eyes on a NYSCEF or ECF filing, or on what the assigned part expects before you travel, that is a call rather than a new engagement.
You receive a written report the same day, by the end of business, on every appearance. That report tells your firm what the court actually said, what it directed, and what the next date is, which is the information an out-of-state litigator cannot get any other way.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Does a standing local counsel relationship require an annual retainer?
No. The relationship is standing, but the engagement is per matter. Your firm does not prepay for cases it does not have yet. You open a matter when a New York case arrives, and nothing is owed between matters.
Who controls the case if your office is the attorney of record?
Your firm keeps the client, leads the strategy, and runs the case. Our office carries the professional responsibility that New York places on the attorney of record under 22 NYCRR 520.11(c), which means we exercise independent judgment on anything we sign, file, or appear on. We work as co-counsel, not as a signature.
Do you handle both New York State court and federal court in New York?
Yes. Frederic R. Abramson has been admitted in New York since November 1997 and is admitted in both the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York under bar number FA3918, so one office sponsors and covers state and federal matters.
What does local counsel actually do after the pro hac vice motion is granted?
The motion is the beginning of the engagement rather than the end of it. Our office appears at conferences and compliance appearances, and covers depositions, examinations under oath, and 50-h hearings. Your firm gets a written report the same day on every appearance, and when you need to know what the assigned part expects before you travel, that is a call rather than a new engagement.
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Phone: 212-233-0666 | Text: 917-686-3827 | Email: fabramson@abramsonlegal.com
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