Domiciliating a law firm: registered office, the Bar and professional secrecy

Can a lawyer domiciliate their firm through a domiciliation company? The answer lies in a distinction that many people confuse: on one side the registered office of the practice company, which falls under company law and can go through a domiciliation arrangement; on the other the lawyer's professional domicile, which falls under professional conduct rules and the rules of their Bar. One can be domiciliated, the other remains governed by the Bar council. Here is what domiciliation actually settles, and what it does not.

Two addresses not to be confused

Most lawyers today practise through a company: a SELARL, a SELAS, a SCP (civil professional partnership), or a société pluri-professionnelle d'exercice (multidisciplinary practice company). Like any company, this structure has a registered office, an administrative address that appears on the register and on its documents. Alongside it, each lawyer has a professional domicile, also called the principal office (cabinet principal): the place where they actually practise, receive their clients and keep their files. The code of professional conduct states it plainly: a lawyer must set their professional domicile within the jurisdiction of the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire) to which they are attached. These two addresses may coincide, but they are two distinct notions, and domiciliation bears only on the first.

The company's registered office determines the Bar

This is the most important point, and it is recent. Since the décret du 14 août 2024 on practising the legal profession through a company, a law firm, whether a SEL (SELARL, SELAS…) or a SCP, is formed on condition that it is registered with the Bar established at the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire) in whose jurisdiction the registered office is located, and on whose roll at least one of the practising partners of the firm is enrolled. In other words, the registered office determines the Bar it attaches to.

The consequence is direct: setting the registered office of your law firm at a domiciliation address in Tours attaches it to the Tours Bar (the jurisdiction of the judicial court of Tours). This choice therefore only makes sense if at least one partner is, or will be, enrolled with that Bar. Domiciliating a registered office in Tours while practising exclusively in another jurisdiction would not be consistent with this rule.

Which structures have a registered office that can be domiciliated? Those with legal personality that are registered: SELs (SELARL, SELAS…), SCPs, sociétés pluri-professionnelles d'exercice (multidisciplinary practice companies) and SPFPLs (holding companies for the liberal professions). Practising on a sole basis, by contrast, involves no company and rests solely on the lawyer's own office; the AARPI, an association without legal personality, has no registered office registered in the same sense. In both of these cases, it is the professional domicile that counts, not a company's registered office.

But domiciliation does not replace the office

Domiciliating the company's registered office does not relieve the lawyer of the need to have an actual principal office (cabinet principal). The profession's national internal regulations (règlement intérieur national) require that this office correspond to genuine practice and that the lawyer practise in material conditions that preserve professional secrecy. A mere mail-receiving address does not amount to a place of practice.

Does this mean that a domiciliation company's address can serve as a lawyer's professional domicile? No national text settles the question. This matter falls within the Bar council's discretion, the material conditions required vary from one Bar to another, and the subject is the object of reform work. The golden rule is therefore simple: before domiciliating your company's registered office in Tours, confirm the conditions with the Tours Bar council. Do not rely on a general rule, there is none on this particular point.

Professional secrecy and the mail

A lawyer's professional secrecy is a matter of public policy, general, absolute and unlimited in time. It covers consultations, correspondence between the client and their lawyer, exchanges between fellow lawyers (unless marked « officielle », that is, official), the documents in the file, and even the names of clients and the lawyer's diary. Breaching it is a criminal offence, punishable by one year's imprisonment and a fine of €15,000.

This has a concrete consequence for domiciliation. A third party who receives, sorts and scans your mail must not handle correspondence covered by secrecy. Domiciliation is perfectly suited to administrative mail (court registry, tax authorities, Urssaf, suppliers); sensitive mail relating to your clients, on the other hand, must be sent to your real office, not to the domiciliation address. Entrusting the receipt of your mail to a third party neither transfers secrecy nor secures it: it remains your responsibility. For the clauses to watch in this kind of contract, see our five checks to carry out.

The same logic applies to the inviolability of the office. Searches of a lawyer's office or home are subject to a protective regime (presence of the bâtonnier, the president of the Bar; a decision by the liberty and custody judge, the juge des libertés et de la détention). But this protection is meant to attach to the actual place of practice, where the files are kept, and should not extend to a mere administrative address: a letterbox at a domiciliation provider is not intended to serve as an office within the meaning of this text.

What if you already practise elsewhere: the secondary office

A lawyer enrolled with another Bar who wants a presence in Tours does not domiciliate their principal office: they open a secondary office (bureau secondaire). This requires a declaration to their own Bar council and, for an office in the jurisdiction of another Bar, the authorisation of the host Bar council, which rules within one month (silence being treated as consent). The secondary office must correspond to genuine activity, and the host Bar may require a contribution. Be careful, however: the lawyer remains enrolled with a single Bar, and this presence does not depart from the territorial rules of postulation (the right to represent clients before a given court).

On the tax and social security side

Lawyers fall under non-commercial profits (BNC) and contribute to the CNBF for their pension; they are excluded from the auto-entrepreneur (micro-entrepreneur) scheme. For VAT, the profession benefits from its own base exemption (franchise en base) thresholds: €50,000 (€55,000 as the increased threshold during the year) for the regulated, core activity, and €35,000 (€38,500) for ancillary activities. A SELAS or a SELARL being subject to corporation tax does not rule out the exemption, as long as these thresholds are not exceeded.

What Domisiège can, and cannot, do for a lawyer

In practical terms, Domisiège provides a law firm with a registered-office address in Tours (and therefore, provided that a practising partner is enrolled there, attachment to the Tours Bar), the handling of administrative mail, a meeting room on booking for occasional client meetings, and the proof of occupancy required at registration. The offer starts at €24 per month, with a contract lasting a minimum of three months. The Régime réel (actual-expenses regime) plan also gives access to the chartered accountant of Épiphyse Conseil, who specialises in the liberal professions, useful for a law firm's accounting and the BNC taxation of its partners.

Let us be frank: Domisiège is not a law firm. Your actual professional domicile, compliance with secrecy for your clients' mail and the inviolability of your office remain your responsibility and fall under your Bar. Domiciliation is an administrative tool that carries your company's registered office and its management mail, not a substitute for your place of practice. For the rest, the point of contact is the Tours Bar council.

Sources verified as of 9 October 2026: loi n° 71-1130 du 31 décembre 1971 (art. 7 modes of practice, art. 8-1 secondary offices and professional residence, art. 66-5 professional secrecy); décret n° 2024-872 du 14 août 2024 on practising the legal profession through a company (art. 3 for the SCP, art. 89 for the SEL: the registered office determines the Bar); ordonnance n° 2023-77 du 8 février 2023 (practice companies for the regulated liberal professions, in force on 1 September 2024); décret n° 2023-552 du 30 juin 2023 establishing the code of professional conduct for lawyers (art. 4 professional secrecy, art. 45 professional domicile); Règlement intérieur national de la profession d'avocat (CNB), articles 2, 3 and 15; code de procédure pénale, art. 56-1 (searches at the office); code pénal, art. 226-13; BOFiP, BOI-TVA-DECLA-40-20 (base exemption for lawyers). This article gives general points of reference; the conditions for domiciliating a law firm are assessed with the competent Bar council, in this case the Tours Bar. Domisiège, business domiciliation in Tours, backed by the firm Épiphyse Conseil.