Georgia § 14-7-4 - Professional services.

§ 14-7-4. Professional services.

A professional corporation may practice only one profession, but for the purpose of this chapter: The practice of architecture, professional engineering, and land surveying shall be considered the practice of only one profession to the extent that existing laws permit overlapping practices by members of those specific professions not inconsistent with the ethics of the professions involved; To the extent not inconsistent with the ethics of the professions involved or otherwise prohibited by law, physicians specializing in ophthalmology who are practicing within their scope of practice as established by law may organize and jointly own a professional corporation with optometrists who are practicing within their scope of practice as established by law; provided, however, that nothing in this paragraph shall authorize optometrists to attach the title "physician" to such optometrists' names or to the name of the professional corporation; and To the extent not inconsistent with the ethics of the professions involved or otherwise prohibited by law, Doctors of Podiatric Medicine who are practicing within their scope of practice as established by law may organize and jointly own a professional corporation with any Doctors of Medicine or Doctors of Osteopathy who are practicing within their own scope of practice as established by law. A professional corporation shall engage in the practice of a profession only through its officers, employees, and agents who are duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized to practice the profession in this state. This restriction shall not, however, prevent the corporation from employing unlicensed persons in capacities in which they are not rendering professional services to the public in the course of their employment. At least one member of the board of directors and the president of a professional corporation shall be licensed to practice the profession for which the corporation is organized. If the governing board of a professional corporation includes persons not so licensed, the corporation shall, by creation of a standing committee of the board or otherwise, vest the responsibility for decisions relating wholly to professional considerations in persons who are so licensed. (Ga. L. 1970, p. 243, § 4; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1261, § 1/HB 316; Ga. L. 2020, p. 225, § 1/HB 932.) The 2015 amendment, effective July 1, 2015, in subsection (a), inserted the "(1)" designation and added the language following "the professions involved" at the end. The 2020 amendment, effective January 1, 2021, in subsection (a), substituted a colon for a comma at the end, made capitalization changes at the beginning of paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(2), substituted a semicolon for ", and" at the end of paragraph (a)(1), in paragraph (a)(2), substituted "that" for "who" in two places and substituted "; and" for the period at the end, and added paragraph (a)(3).