4.2
How Alberta Lawyers Organize Their Professional Businesses 

Entities that Practice Law   

Viewed as legal entities, law practices may take the form of:   

  • Sole proprietorships: a sole proprietorship is an individual practicing law in the individual's personal capacity as a solo practitioner or in space-sharing association with other sole proprietorships or professional corporations.
  • Partnerships: A partnership consists of two or more individual lawyers and/or professional corporations jointly carrying on business as the proprietors of a single law practice. The legal relationships between the partners are found in the partnership agreement, if any, the Partnership Act and the common law.    
  • Limited Liability Partnerships: Limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are partnerships that comply with the LLP provisions of the Partnership Act and have registered as an LLP with the Law Society and the Alberta government (see: Rules of the Law Society of Alberta, Part 8.1).      
  • Professional Corporations: Professional corporations practice law pursuant to a permit issued by the Law Society under the Legal Profession Act and the Rules of the Law Society of Alberta, and may practice alone or in partnership with individual lawyers and/or other professional corporation (see: Rules 153.1-159).  If you incorporate your practice, you will have additional expenses, such as: 

    • Initial incorporation expenses, including normal incorporation expenses and a fee to the Law Society for your professional corporation permit; 
    • Annual expenses associated with maintaining the corporation, a fee to the Law Society for your professional corporation permit renewal, financial statements for the corporation and corporate tax returns (federal and provincial); and,
    • Your accounting will be marginally more complex. 
Some lawyers incorporate a management company that employs the spouses and/or children of the proprietor or the partners. Because of the restrictions in the Legal Profession Act, a management company cannot practice law, so its activities must be restricted to providing non-legal services such as secretarial, accounting, administrative, space and other like services to the firm. 

Get advice from an accountant before doing this.    

Viewed as business organizations (i.e., as firms), law practices are:  

  •  Sole practitioners: a sole practitioner is a sole proprietor or a professional corporation operating alone (i.e., without employed lawyers or partners, though often with employed support staff).   

  • Sole proprietors with employed professionals: firms consisting of a sole proprietor or professional corporation with employed lawyers are not uncommon, although the Law Society doesn't have a specific name for them.   

  • Partnerships: a partnership (including an LLP) consists of two or more individual lawyers and/or professional corporations operating a single, joint business, with or without employed lawyers. The word "partnership" refers to both the legal entity and the business firm.   

  • Space-sharing associations: a space-sharing association, also commonly referred to as a cost-sharing association or an association of independent practitioners, is a hybrid organization consisting of a group of sole proprietors, partnerships and/or professional corporations who practice together but not in partnership. An association does not usually employ lawyers, but members of an association may. A variation on this theme is a law suite consisting of space developed into law offices by a lawyer and rented out to other lawyers who practice independently of each other.   


Last modified: Wednesday, 11 March 2026, 8:52 AM