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by ksenzee 2740 days ago
The difference is that these are phrases with adjectives, not nouns being used adjectivally.
1 comments

"Attorney generals" is a noun phrase (admittedly of questionable adjectivity). "Attorneys general" is a blind idiot translation of a phrase in a language with different grammatical rules (Latin, IIRC).
"Attorney" is a noun. "General" as used here is an adjective. It's unusual in that the adjective follows the noun without a hyphen, but it's common enough, and it's where prepositional phrases are seen, like "Big man on campus" and "powers that be".

Did ancient Romans have attorneys general?