FINAL BILL REPORT
SSB 6182
C 293 L 98
Synopsis as Enacted
Brief Description: Allowing for interstate professional services corporations.
Sponsors: Senate Committee on Law & Justice (originally sponsored by Senators Johnson and Roach).
Senate Committee on Law & Justice
House Committee on Law & Justice
Background: Professional limited liability companies may be composed of persons licensed to render professional services in any state. However, professional service corporations must be wholly owned by persons licensed in Washington.
The Washington State Bar Association has suggested that professional service corporations ought to be allowed to include licensed professionals from other states.
Summary: Professionals not licensed in Washington, but properly licensed in any other jurisdiction, may become shareholders, directors, and officers of a professional service corporation in this state. The corporation must serve the same profession as that for which the individual is licensed.
A professional service corporation may render services outside Washington through an individual who is not licensed in Washington. Professional service corporations from another state are allowed to do business in this state.
If a shareholder is personally engaged in a profession in Washington, he or she must be licensed to practice that profession in Washington. Additionally, either one officer and one director of the corporation must be licensed to practice that profession in Washington or each office in Washington must have a corporate officer in charge of that office who is licensed to practice that profession here.
Every director, officer, shareholder, agent, and employee of a professional service corporation open to the public must be qualified at all times to render professional services in at least one state where the corporation does business.
Votes on Final Passage:
Senate 48 0
House 98 0 (House amended)
Senate 48 0 (Senate concurred)
Effective: June 11, 1998