Attorneys use anonymous LLCs for non-practice income, asset protection, and real estate. Law practice itself requires a PLLC subject to state bar rules.
By Shafwan Ahmed, Operations & Fulfillment Lead, Anonymousllc.co
Practice through a PLLC / Professional Corporation as required by your state bar. Use a Wyoming anonymous LLC for non-practice income (book royalties, expert witness work outside the law-practice entity, real estate, equity investments) and for asset protection.
Attorneys handle adversarial cases. Hostile parties - from opposing counsel to disgruntled former clients - sometimes target attorneys' personal assets through litigation outside the original case. An anonymous LLC keeps real estate, investments, and non-practice income off Secretary of State filings tied to the attorney's legal name.
Strong charging order protection on single-member and multi-member LLCs. No state income tax. Wyoming RA replaces personal address on state filings tied to the non-practice entity.
| State | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Wyoming (recommended) | $397 | Best balance of cost, anonymity, banking acceptance. |
| New Mexico | $347 | Cheapest. No annual report. Banking is harder. |
No. Most state bars require an attorney-owned practice to operate as a PLLC or professional corporation on public record. Practicing law through an anonymous LLC violates bar rules. State bar regulations tie the practice of law to a licensed professional entity, a PLLC or PC, whose ownership and whose members are disclosed to the bar and on Secretary of State filings. Anonymity at the practice level is not available. What an attorney can make anonymous is everything outside the practice: rental real estate, brokerage holdings, book royalties, and expert-witness income earned separately from the firm. The Wyoming anonymous LLC at $397 handles that non-practice side while the PLLC or PC handles client work on the public record the bar requires.
An attorney routes non-practice income through the Wyoming LLC: rental property, equity and brokerage holdings, book and course royalties, and consulting or expert-witness work earned outside the law-practice entity. The line is client legal services versus everything else. Legal fees flow through the PLLC or PC that the bar regulates. Passive and non-practice income - rent from an investment property, dividends from a brokerage account outside a retirement plan, royalties from a published book, or speaking fees - flows through the Wyoming anonymous LLC. Keeping these streams in a separate entity isolates them from practice liability and keeps the attorney's name off the state filings that hold those assets. Move assets in before any dispute arises, because transfers made after a threat can be unwound under fraudulent-transfer rules.
An anonymous LLC holds an attorney's real estate and investments under an entity whose Wyoming filings show no personal name, so a hostile party's asset search returns the registered agent address. Attorneys work adversarial matters, and opposing parties or disgruntled former clients sometimes pursue an attorney's personal assets in litigation outside the original case. When rental property and brokerage accounts sit inside a Wyoming LLC, a search of public records does not connect them to the attorney's legal name. Wyoming's charging order protection limits a personal creditor to a lien on distributions rather than seizure of the underlying assets, on both single-member and multi-member LLCs. The LLC does not shield legal malpractice - professional liability insurance does that - but it removes the easy, public path from the attorney's name to the assets.
Most state bars require attorneys to disclose outside business activities, even when those activities are anonymous on state records. The anonymity is against public searchers, not against the bar. Bar rules on outside business and conflicts of interest reach activities the attorney controls, so forming a Wyoming LLC anonymous to the public does not remove the duty to report it to the bar where required. Check your jurisdiction's specific rule on outside business interests before assuming the LLC needs no disclosure. The anonymity the LLC provides is directed at county searchers, opposing counsel scanning state filings, and the general public, not at the regulator you answer to. Treat bar disclosure as a separate obligation the LLC structure does not eliminate.
Wyoming at $397 is the recommended choice for an attorney's non-practice LLC, balancing strong charging order protection, no state income tax, and the best banking acceptance. New Mexico is cheaper at $347 and requires no annual report, but banking is harder to secure and the price advantage is $50. Wyoming carries a $60 annual report and delivers charging order protection on both single-member and multi-member LLCs, which matters for an attorney holding assets solo. The Wyoming registered agent address replaces the attorney's personal address on the Articles of Organization and annual report. Whichever state holds the non-practice LLC, the law practice itself stays in the PLLC or PC that the state bar governs on public record.
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