The Cobbler's Children PLLC

The North Carolina Court of Appeals reversed a number of rulings of the Special Superior Court for Complex Business Cases and remanded for further proceedings in a matter involving the breakup of a PLLC.

The court started the opinion with an old saying that "the cobbler's children have no shoes."

Then

Lawyers may suffer from the same problems, if they are too busy dealing with their clients' legal affairs to address their own. This cases arises because the members of a law firm organized as a PLLC did not adopt an operating agreement or any other documents governing the operation of the PLLC. In theit actions and communications relevant to the individual plaintiffs' cessation of practice with the indivual defendants, the parties at times seem to treat their business as a partnership and at other times as a PLLC, and certainly a PLLC has elements of both types of business entities.

The court addressed a number of standing issues stemming from the breakup of a firm founded in 2000. (Mike Frisch)