Bizee vs. Doola for Solo Attorneys: What the Bar Actually Requires

Almost every state restricts law firm ownership to licensed attorneys and requires a specific professional entity type rather than an ordinary LLC. Some states have additional rules around firm names, particularly if the name doesn't include a current partner's name, and some restrict non-attorney ownership entirely, even a minority stake. Check your state bar's rules on law firm structure before filing, since operating under the wrong entity type can raise a genuine ethics compliance issue, not just a paperwork one. A short call to your bar's ethics hotline, where one exists, is often the fastest way to get a clear answer.

Any attorney who holds client funds, retainers, settlement proceeds, or advance fees, is required to maintain a separate trust account, typically an IOLTA account, governed by strict commingling rules under your state's rules of professional conduct. This account is entirely separate from your firm's operating account and from anything Bizee or Doola sets up as part of standard LLC formation. Set it up with a bank that explicitly supports IOLTA accounts before you accept your first client retainer.

If you're a solo attorney or small partnership operating in one state and you've confirmed the correct professional entity type with your bar, Bizee's flat filing fee and first-year included registered agent are a low-cost way to file the underlying paperwork. It won't set up your IOLTA account or verify bar compliance, so treat those as separate, mandatory steps.

Some practice areas, immigration law serving clients abroad, for instance, involve attorneys or staff based outside the US. Doola's EIN filing as a third-party designee doesn't require a Social Security number, and the bundled bookkeeping is useful if you'd rather not manage your own books on top of everything else a new practice demands.

Some states require attorneys to carry malpractice insurance or disclose that they don't; others make it optional but effectively necessary given the financial exposure of a missed deadline or a conflict of interest. If you plan to practice in more than one state, remember that bar admission is state-specific, and forming an entity in one state doesn't grant you the right to practice law in another; that's a separate bar admission or pro hac vice process entirely.

Accountants and auditors, a role with comparably rigorous licensing requirements to attorneys, earn a median annual wage of $83,680 nationally¹. It's an imperfect comparison, but for a new solo attorney setting hourly rates, it's a useful floor: pricing your billable time below what a licensed professional in an adjacent regulated field earns on salary rarely accounts for the overhead of running your own practice.

Say another attorney refers you a client and expects a percentage of your fee in return, a common informal arrangement in some practice areas. Many state bars restrict fee-splitting between attorneys not in the same firm to specific conditions, often requiring client consent in writing and a fee split that reflects actual work or joint responsibility, not a pure referral payment. An arrangement that seems like standard business courtesy in another industry can be a genuine ethics violation in law practice. Check your state's specific rule on fee-sharing with outside attorneys before agreeing to any referral arrangement that involves splitting your fee.

State filing fees for the underlying entity average $132 nationally², a minor cost next to malpractice insurance and the ongoing bar compliance work. If you're a domestic, single-state practice that has already confirmed its entity type with the bar, Bizee gets the filing done cheaply. If you're distributed or want bookkeeping handled for you, Doola's bundle is worth the extra cost. Whichever platform handles the filing, keep your bar registration and malpractice coverage documented somewhere a referral source or opposing counsel's due diligence can verify quickly.

Work through these checks before you file anything:

1. Confirm with your state bar which professional entity type applies, since most states restrict ownership of a law practice to licensed attorneys.
2. Check firm name rules and whether your state allows any non-attorney ownership at all, even a minority stake.
3. Open an IOLTA trust account directly with a bank if you will hold client funds, and keep it separate from your operating account.
4. Decide on malpractice coverage, or on the disclosure your state requires if you go without it.
5. File the underlying entity paperwork, choosing Bizee for a domestic single-state practice or Doola for a distributed one.