How to Complete and Submit the Affirmation of Law-Related Employment Form

The Affirmation of Law-Related Employment is a New York bar admission form that a supervising attorney fills out and signs for each law-related job you list on your application. You download it from the New York State Board of Law Examiners website, give a copy to your former supervisor for every qualifying position, and submit the signed originals with the rest of your admission packet to the Appellate Division that certified you.¹ The single best thing you can do with this form is collect it as each position ends, while your supervisor is still easy to reach.

Which Jobs Require an Affirmation

Question 14 of the Application for Admission Questionnaire asks you to list every job you have held since turning 21 or in the last 10 years, whichever is shorter. That list is broad and covers part-time work, self-employment, military service, work for family members, unpaid positions, and everything in between.²

Only the law-related entries need the separate affirmation form. The form instructions define the trigger as each law-related employment or period of solo law practice listed on Question 14.³ That includes law firms, government legal offices, corporate legal departments, judicial clerkships, law school clinics, externships, work-study positions involving legal tasks, and research assistant roles, whether paid or not.² Non-legal jobs (retail, restaurant, general office work) still get listed on the questionnaire, but they do not need this form.

One affirmation per qualifying position. If you list four law-related jobs, you need four separate original affirmations. A two-month summer internship gets the same treatment as a two-year clerkship.

What the Form Asks For

The form has fields for you and fields for the person completing it. You fill in your identifying details and the basic employment information before handing it over. The affirmant fills in the rest:

Full legal name and complete mailing address of the employer, including country if outside the United States.
Month and year the position started and ended, or a note that it continues. If you were terminated, the form asks how and why.
The affirmant’s own position at the organization.
The nature and frequency of the affirmant’s contact with you, and whether they personally supervised your work. If someone else supervised you directly, the affirmant provides that person’s name and position.
A description of your duties and the legal services you performed: research, drafting, client intake, case management, court filings, or whatever the work actually involved.
The jurisdiction where the affirmant is admitted to practice and the year of admission.³

Dates matter more than people expect. A one-month discrepancy between what you wrote on Question 14 and what your supervisor writes on the affirmation can trigger a request for clarification that delays your entire application. Confirm the dates before your supervisor signs.

Who Can Complete the Form

The supervising attorney at each position is the natural choice. The Second Department’s guide tells law students to ask the supervising lawyer or professor to fill out the form as each position ends, while the details are still fresh.⁴ If someone other than your direct supervisor completes it, they must identify who actually supervised you and explain their own connection to your work.

Two restrictions apply. First, the form should not be completed by anyone related to you by blood or marriage unless no other option is feasible. If you worked at a family member’s firm, find another attorney at the organization who can serve as affirmant. Second, for a period of solo law practice, the affirmation must be completed by an attorney, not a client or staff member.³ For solo work, that usually means a colleague, co-counsel, or opposing counsel who can speak knowledgeably about your practice.

When Your Former Supervisor Is Unreachable

Former supervisors move, retire, and sometimes pass away. If the person who supervised your work is genuinely unreachable, or the firm has closed, you will need to explain the situation to the Committee on Character and Fitness and provide whatever alternative documentation you can assemble. The form itself does not spell out an alternative procedure, so contact the Committee in the department where you are applying and ask how they want you to handle it before submitting the packet. A proactive phone call almost always costs less time than letting the Committee discover the gap on its own.

Affirmations Completed Abroad

If an affirmation is completed outside the United States, it may need to comply with local authentication requirements such as an apostille. The New York Secretary of State charges $10 per document for apostille authentication.⁵ Any affirmation not written in English must be accompanied by a certified English translation, including a statement from the translator setting out their qualifications and certifying that the translation is accurate.³

Signing: No Notary Required

This is an affirmation, not an affidavit. The person completing it signs under penalty of perjury under New York law, a process authorized by CPLR 2106, which gives a sworn affirmation the same legal weight as a notarized affidavit.⁶ The form itself states that false statements are punishable under Section 210.45 of the Penal Law, which can carry a fine or imprisonment.³

Because no notary is involved, your affirmant simply signs and dates the form. This is a real advantage when the person completing it is in another state or country. No notary appointment, no seal. Once signed, the affirmant returns the original to you, and you include it with your admission packet.

Where to Submit Your Completed Packet

New York has four Appellate Division departments, and each handles bar admissions for its geographic area.⁷ Your completed affirmations go in with the rest of the admission packet to the department that certified you, not necessarily where you live now or where you took the exam. Check your BOLE certification notice to confirm which department that is. Submission method varies:

First Department (Manhattan, the Bronx): digital submissions only, through the NYSCEF online portal. Do not mail hard copies unless specifically requested.⁸
Second Department (Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, and surrounding counties): digital submissions by email. Send the application package as a PDF to AD2CCF@nycourts.gov with the subject line “New Application for Admission – [Last Name], [First Name].” Include a statement confirming the digitized documents are a complete and accurate representation of the originals, and keep the originals in case the Committee asks for them.⁹
Third Department (Albany and surrounding counties): check the Third Department’s attorney admissions page for current filing requirements.
Fourth Department (Rochester, Buffalo, and western New York): applications are mailed. The Court sends materials and instructions with a deadline; completed applications and required documents must be postmarked by that deadline.¹⁰

Submitting to the wrong department bounces the whole packet back, so verify against your certification notice before you send anything.

Mistakes That Delay Admission

A few errors come up often enough to flag before you start assembling:

Mismatched dates. The dates on your affirmation must match Question 14. Resolve any discrepancy with your supervisor before submitting.
Missing affirmations. Every law-related position needs its own original. Short internships count.
Family-member affirmants when other options existed. If a relative signed and you could have asked an unrelated attorney, the Committee may reject the form and ask for a replacement.³
Waiting years to collect the forms. The Second Department’s own guide advises law students to collect affirmations as each position ends. Supervisors leave firms, retire, and get harder to find with every passing year.⁴

A clean, complete packet with no discrepancies always moves faster than one that requires follow-up correspondence.

1
New York State Board of Law Examiners. Admission Multi Packet
2
New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division. Application for Admission to Practice as an Attorney and Counselor-at-Law in the State of New York
3
New York State Board of Law Examiners. Form Affirmation as to Applicant’s Law-Related Employment and/or Solo Practice
4
New York State Unified Court System. Applying for Admission to Practice – What You Need to Know While Still in Law School
5
NYC.gov. Apostille Document Authentication
6
New York State Senate. New York Civil Practice Law and Rules Section 2106 – Affirmation of Truth of Statement
7
New York Courts. Appellate Courts
8
Appellate Division, First Judicial Department. Committee on Character and Fitness
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New York State Unified Court System. Supreme Court of the State of New York Appellate Division – Second Judicial Department Supplemental Instructions
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New York State Unified Court System. Fourth Department Bar Admissions