Your New York Co-Counsel Withdrew. Your Admission Depends on Them.
A pro hac vice admission in New York is not freestanding. It rests on an association with a New York attorney of record, and the rule says so in plain words. When that attorney leaves the case, the thing your admission was resting on is gone. This office steps in as replacement local counsel and attorney of record so the case does not stall.
Read 520.11(c) Again. It Is a Condition, Not a Courtesy.
Most out-of-state attorneys read the New York pro hac vice rule once, at the front end, and remember the part that granted them something. The operative sentence for this situation is further down. 22 NYCRR 520.11(c) provides that "[n]o attorney may be admitted pro hac vice… 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."
The association is not a formality you satisfied once and left behind. It is the standing condition on your participation, and the rule attaches a specific role to the New York attorney: that attorney is the attorney of record. When the attorney of record withdraws, the condition your admission was written against is no longer met.
Section 520.11(e) is the other half of the picture and it does not go away either. An attorney admitted pro hac vice is bound by the New York Rules of Professional Conduct and is subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of this State. You are inside the New York system for as long as the matter runs, which is a reason to fix the association promptly rather than to test how long a case can travel without a New York attorney of record on the caption.
Three Ways Your Local Counsel Leaves, and Only One of Them Is Fast.
CPLR 321 governs the exit, and which subdivision applies determines how quickly a replacement can be seated.
Consent under CPLR 321(b)(1)
The statute allows the attorney of record to be changed by filing "a consent to the change signed by the retiring attorney and signed and acknowledged by the party." No motion, no return date, no judicial discretion to wait on. This is the route to push for whenever the client will sign, because it converts a multi-week problem into a filing.
Note the word "acknowledged." This is one of the few litigation documents in New York that genuinely calls for an acknowledgment, because the statute says so. That is a narrow carve-out and it does not spread to the rest of the papers in the case.
Motion to be relieved under CPLR 321(b)(2)
Where the client will not consent, or where the withdrawing attorney and the client are in conflict, the attorney moves to be relieved on notice to the client and to the adverse parties, and the court may allow the change "upon such terms as may be just." Terms can include a stay to let the party retain new counsel, and they can include conditions about the file and about outstanding deadlines. The timing here belongs to the court, not to you.
Under 22 NYCRR 202.8-a, a proposed order should be submitted with a motion to be relieved, alongside the other categories the rule identifies, which include pro hac vice admissions and applications for open commissions. Dispositive motions are the opposite case and take no proposed order. Whoever prepares the withdrawal motion should have the proposed order ready with it.
Death, removal, or suspension under CPLR 321(c)
This is the only route that carries an automatic stay. If the attorney dies, becomes physically or mentally incapacitated, or is removed, suspended, or otherwise becomes disabled, "no further proceeding shall be taken in the action against the party for whom he appeared, without leave of the court, until thirty days after notice to appoint another attorney has been served upon that party." Thirty days is short, and it starts on service of the notice, not on the event.
The Substitution and the Next Appearance Are One Problem.
The mistake that costs cases here is treating the substitution as a paperwork task to be finished before anyone thinks about the calendar. Outside CPLR 321(c), nothing stops while the substitution is arranged. A compliance conference on the calendar next week does not move because your local counsel resigned. A motion return date does not move. A discovery deadline in a preliminary conference order does not move.
Replacement local counsel has to do two things at once: get on the caption, and cover whatever is on the calendar between now and then. Handled in sequence, the second one is missed.
Confirm which CPLR 321 route the withdrawing attorney is taking, because that decides the timeline.
Pull the docket and identify every date already scheduled, including conferences, return dates, and any date fixed in a prior order.
Seat replacement counsel by consent under 321(b)(1) if the client will sign, which is the fastest path on the board.
Ask the part whether it wants a renewed pro hac vice motion once the new association is in place, and have one drafted either way.
Cover the next appearance regardless of where the substitution stands.
Federal Court Runs on the Same Logic With Different Text.
If the matter is in the Southern or Eastern District, the joint local rules that took effect on January 2, 2026 govern, and the pro hac vice provisions sit at Local Civil Rule 1.3(i) through (k). The federal rule does not impose the New York attorney-of-record condition the way 520.11(c) does, so the withdrawal of an associated New York firm is a different problem there. It is still a real one: the court has an interest in knowing who is answerable in the district, and CM/ECF filing privileges and service obligations follow whoever is appearing.
The federal analogue to the substitution question is a notice of appearance from replacement counsel and, where an attorney is coming off, a motion to withdraw addressed to the assigned judge. The deadline point is identical. A Rule 16 conference date and a Rule 26(f) obligation do not pause because counsel is changing.
What This Office Does.
This office appears as replacement New York local counsel and attorney of record for out-of-state attorneys admitted pro hac vice. That means taking the 520.11(c) role rather than lending a signature to it: appearing on the caption, appearing in the part, and being the New York attorney the court can address.
Practically, the work is preparing the consent to change attorney or coordinating with the withdrawing attorney's motion, filing the substitution on NYSCEF, confirming with the part whether it wants a renewed pro hac vice motion and preparing one if so, and covering the appearances that fall while all of that is pending. The firm has been handling New York court appearances and depositions for 28 years, in all five boroughs and in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, and Orange counties.
The number to call on a live deadline is 212-233-0666. If the next date is close, say so in the first sentence.
Frequently Asked Questions.
Does my pro hac vice admission end automatically when my New York co-counsel withdraws?
The admission order is not self-vacating. A court that granted admission under 22 NYCRR 520.11(a)(1) does not revoke it on its own when local counsel leaves. What changes is the condition the rule attaches to your participation. Section 520.11(c) states that no attorney may be admitted pro hac vice 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. With no New York attorney of record, that condition is not satisfied, and the practical answer is to substitute new local counsel rather than to argue about the status of the old order.
Do I have to move for admission again once new local counsel appears?
That is a judgment call, not a rule with a published answer, and it should be treated that way. The admission order itself was never vacated, so one reading is that substituting a new New York attorney of record restores the 520.11(c) condition and nothing further is required. Another reading is that the order named the original association and a fresh motion is the clean route. Practice varies by part. The safe course is for replacement local counsel to file the substitution and ask the part directly, and to have a renewed motion drafted in case the answer is that one is wanted.
How does my New York attorney get out of the case?
CPLR 321 provides three routes. Under 321(b)(1) the attorney of record may be changed by filing a consent signed by the retiring attorney and signed and acknowledged by the party, with no motion at all. Under 321(b)(2) the attorney moves to be relieved on notice to the client and to the other parties, and the court fixes the terms. Under 321(c) the attorney's death, removal, or suspension triggers a stay of proceedings against that party for 30 days after notice to appoint replacement counsel is served. The first route is fastest and is available whenever the client will sign.
Will the court stay my deadlines while I find new local counsel?
Only in the narrow circumstance CPLR 321(c) covers, which is death, removal, or suspension of the attorney, and even then the stay runs 30 days from service of the notice to appoint. An ordinary withdrawal by consent or on motion carries no automatic stay. Discovery deadlines, motion return dates, and conference dates continue to run while the substitution is being arranged, which is why the substitution and the coverage of the next appearance should be handled at the same time rather than in sequence.
Need Replacement Local Counsel?
Fill out a brief inquiry and we will call you back within one hour during business hours.
Phone: 212-233-0666 | Text/Emergency: 917-686-3827 | Email: fabramson@abramsonlegal.com
When your case is on the line, send someone who knows the courtroom.
Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The Law Office of Frederic R. Abramson, 160 Broadway, Suite 500, New York, NY 10038. 212-233-0666.