Corporations and voluntary associations not to practice law

§ 495. Corporations and voluntary associations not to practice law. 1.
No corporation or voluntary association shall (a) practice or appear as
an attorney-at-law for any person in any court in this state or before
any judicial body, nor

(b) make it a business to practice as an attorney-at-law, for any
person, in any of said courts, nor

(c) hold itself out to the public as being entitled to practice law,
or to render legal services or advice, nor

(d) furnish attorneys or counsel, nor

(e) render legal services of any kind in actions or proceedings of any
nature or in any other way or manner, nor

(f) assume in any other manner to be entitled to practice law, nor

(g) assume, use or advertise the title of lawyer or attorney,
attorney-at-law, or equivalent terms in any language in such manner as
to convey the impression that it is entitled to practice law or to
furnish legal advice, services or counsel, nor

(h) advertise that either alone or together with or by or through any
person whether or not a duly and regularly admitted attorney-at-law, it
has, owns, conducts or maintains a law office or an office for the
practice of law, or for furnishing legal advice, services or counsel.

2. No corporation or voluntary association shall itself or by or
through its officers, agents or employees, solicit any claim or demand,
or taken an assignment thereof, for the purpose of representing any
person in the pursuit of any civil remedy, nor solicit any claim or
demand for the purpose of representing as attorney-at-law, or of
furnishing legal advice, services or counsel to, a person sued or about
to be sued in any action or proceeding or against whom an action or
proceeding has been or is about to be brought, or who may be affected by
any action or proceeding which has been or may be instituted in any
court or before any judicial body.

Nothing herein contained shall affect any assignment heretofore or
hereafter taken by any moneyed corporation authorized to do business in
the state of New York or its nominee pursuant to a subrogation agreement
or a salvage operation. Any corporation or voluntary association
violating the provisions of this subdivision or of subdivision one of
this section shall be liable to a fine of not more than five thousand
dollars and every officer, trustee, director, agent or employee of such
corporation or voluntary association who directly or indirectly engages
in any of the acts prohibited in this subdivision or in subdivision one
of this section or assists such corporation or voluntary association to
do such prohibited acts is guilty of a misdemeanor. The fact that such
officer, trustee, director, agent or employee shall be a duly and
regularly admitted attorney-at-law, shall not be held to permit or allow
any such corporation or voluntary association to do the acts so
prohibited nor shall such fact be a defense upon the trial of any of the
persons mentioned herein for a violation of the provisions of this
subdivision or subdivision one of this section.

3. No voluntary association or corporation shall ask or receive
directly or indirectly, compensation for preparing deeds, mortgages,
assignments, discharges, leases, or any other instruments affecting real
estate, wills, codicils, or any other instruments affecting disposition
of property after death or decedents' estates, or pleadings of any kind
in actions or proceedings of any nature. Any association or corporation
violating the provisions of this subdivision is guilty of a misdemeanor
unless otherwise provided by section four hundred eighty-five-a of this
article.

4. Subdivisions one and two of this section shall not apply to any
corporation or voluntary association lawfully engaged in a business
authorized by the provisions of any existing statute.

5. This section shall not apply to a corporation or voluntary
association lawfully engaged in the examination and insuring of titles
to real property, in the preparation of any deeds, mortgages,
assignments, discharges, leases or any other instruments affecting real
property insofar as such instruments are necessary to the examination
and insuring of titles, and necessary or incidental to loans made by any
such corporation or association; nor shall it prohibit a corporation or
voluntary association from employing an attorney or attorneys in and
about its own immediate affairs or in any litigation to which it is or
may be a party. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent a
corporation or association from furnishing to any person, lawfully
engaged in the practice of law, such information or such clerical
services in and about his professional work as, except for the
provisions of this section, may be lawful, provided that at all times
the lawyer receiving such information or such services shall maintain
full professional and direct responsibility to his clients for the
information and services so received. But no corporation shall be
permitted to render any services which cannot lawfully be rendered by a
person not admitted to practice law in this state nor to solicit
directly or indirectly professional employment for a lawyer.

6. This section shall not apply to a corporation organized under
article fifteen, or authorized to do business in this state under
article fifteen-A, of the business corporation law.

7. This section does not apply to organizations which offer prepaid
legal services; to non-profit organizations whether incorporated or
unincorporated, organized and operating primarily for a purpose other
than the provision of legal services and which furnish legal services as
an incidental activity in furtherance of their primary purpose; or to
organizations which have as their primary purpose the furnishing of
legal services to indigent persons.