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May an Engineer form an LLC in California?
Anonymous3 views3 answers
Business and Professions Code section 6738 states that chapter 7 (Professional Engineers) does not prohibit one or more civil, electrical, or mechanical engineers from practicing as a:
1. sole proprietorship,
2. partnership,
3. limited liability partnership,
4. firm, or corporation (hereinafter called business) if certain requirements are met.
Senate bill 1008, chaptered 2010, extended limited liability partnerships to Engineers until 2016, unless renewed.
The Organization Record Form from the California Board of Professional Engineers permits an engineer to elect either, Corporation, Partnership/Limited Liability Partnership (LLP), or Sole Proprietorship as the business Type.
Strangely silent from all is the limited liability company (LLC).
Matthew Erik JohnsonBankruptcy AttorneySeattle, WA ·
Anybody may form an LLC.
There are restrictions on LLPs and PLLCs (professional limited liability companies). Not every state recognizes the PLLC, however, so check it out. For PLLCs the difference is only in the title to help professional service providers feel special.
I assume that you are asking about the engineer forming the LLC for the purpose of practicing within the scope of the engineering license, as opposed to forming the LLC for some unrelated business purpose (which, of course. would be be permitted).
Although I have not addressed the cited Code Section before, thus I know of no independent authority to answer your question, I am reasonably confident that the Section intends the list of permissible entities to be exclusive, i.e., that an LLC is not permitted.
Generally, a an individual licensed under CA law may practice as:
1. Sole Prop.
2. Partnership
3. Professional Corp.
LLC is not available in my opinion. See corp. code section 13401(a).
BW
