New York attorney registration is the biennial filing New York attorneys make with the New York Office of Court Administration: $375 per registration, due within 30 days after your birthday (22 NYCRR 118.1).
Retired attorneys pay nothing, and New York's CLE cycle rides on the same two-year clock.
Here is who must register, how the fee and cycle work, what the sources do and don't establish about your registration number, and where the rule leaves a lapsed filing.
What New York attorney registration is
New York attorney registration is not the same event as bar admission — it is what keeps going after admission.
Admission happened once: the New York State Board of Law Examiners ran the bar exam and certified passing candidates, and one of the four Appellate Division departments admitted them after their character and fitness review.
Registration is the recurring piece.
Under 22 NYCRR 118.1, a New York attorney re-registers every two years with the Office of Court Administration (OCA) and pays $375 per registration — a filing with the courts, not a bar association payment.
The New York State Bar Association is a voluntary organization rather than a mandatory-membership bar; our research could not confirm that point against a primary rule text, so treat it as orientation and check it with OCA.
Registration is also a separate track from CLE compliance.
They are two different obligations under two different rulebooks — but New York pegs them to the same clock, which matters for your calendar (more on that below).
Rules and fees change
Who has to register with the OCA
The rule speaks to New York attorneys: if you are admitted to practice in New York, you must re-register every two years, within 30 days after your birthday, and pay the registration fee (22 NYCRR 118.1).
Registration is administered separately from admission — by the Office of Court Administration, not by the Board of Law Examiners that runs the bar exam.
Status matters.
The no-fee case the rule names is retirement: retired attorneys pay nothing.
What our captured rule text does not spell out is the full menu of registration statuses, or the timing of a first registration after admission — so if you are newly admitted or changing status, ask the Office of Court Administration what applies to you.
Still working through the steps between the exam and practice?
Our guide to what happens after you pass the bar covers that sequence.
The fee and the two-year cycle
The registration fee is $375 per two-year cycle, due within 30 days after your birthday (22 NYCRR 118.1).
Because the deadline is keyed to your own birthday rather than a fixed calendar date, every attorney's filing window is personal — it recurs around your own birthday, every other year.
The fee the rule names is $375 per registration, and retired attorneys pay nothing.
Whether other statuses carry a different amount is not something our captured rule text settles — confirm yours with the Office of Court Administration.
The CLE clock is pegged to the same filing.
The two-year period between your registration statements is also your CLE reporting cycle, and experienced attorneys owe 24 CLE credit hours for it under 22 NYCRR 1500.22.
How those hours break down — and how the rules differ for newly admitted attorneys — is the territory of our state-by-state CLE guide.
One calendar entry covers both
Your New York attorney registration number
The rule text we captured settles the requirement and the fee, but not the number.
How the Office of Court Administration assigns registration numbers, what the format looks like, and whether there is a public lookup — none of that is documented in the sources this page is built from.
So we will not guess: our research did not confirm how New York registration numbers are issued or where to find yours.
If you need your number for a court filing, an employer form or a licensing check, get it from the Office of Court Administration directly rather than from any summary — including this one.
What happens if you let your registration lapse
The requirement is unambiguous: re-register every two years, within 30 days after your birthday, and pay $375 (22 NYCRR 118.1).
What the sources we captured do not spell out is the consequence of a missed filing — whether a late registration, a penalty or a change in your status follows.
Our research did not confirm what a lapse triggers, so we will not speculate.
If your registration has slipped, ask the Office of Court Administration where you stand.
If you have stepped away from practice rather than letting a deadline slip, status is the lever: retired attorneys pay no registration fee under 22 NYCRR 118.1.
Which status fits your situation is a question for the Office of Court Administration.
And if you are heading back to practice instead, browse attorney openings on LawFirmHires while the paperwork catches up.
Career information, not legal advice. Registration rules and fees change — confirm your registration obligation with the Office of Court Administration before you act.