Legal Question in Business Law in New York

Re: corporations

Yes; all members of a PLLC MUST be licensed to practice in the profession for which the PLLC is formed. These are defined by statute (physicians, attorneys, dentists and architects are some -- not all -- of the professions who can be members of a PLLC).

Since you're a physician, your practice, if you're going the PLLC route, cannot be just an LLC; it must be a _P_LLC (sorry; you can't get around this rule just by foregoing the "P" and forming a general-purpose LLC). The same is true of the other professionals who are eligible to form a PLLC.

All this, though, does not say that your business partner, if s/he is a non-physician, cannot be a manager of the PLLC; you could hire him/her as an employee to manage it. Non-physician Partner can't have ownership interest in a PLLC formed to practice a profession in which s/he is not licensed to practice.

It is also permissible for a non-physician to provide you with startup capital. However, this capital is a LOAN, and it must be repaid over time. A non-physician cannot have more than an arm's length interest (such as a bank lending money would have) in your PLLC.

THE INFORMATION PRESENTED HERE IS GENERAL IN NATURE AND IS NOT INTENDED, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED, AS LEGAL ADVICE. THIS POSTING DOES NOT CREATE ANY ATTORNEY-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN US. FOR SPECIFIC ADVICE ABOUT YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, CONSULT YOUR ATTORNEY.