Education Law 6512: Unauthorized Practice of a Profession in New York

Education Law 6512 is a Class E felony, and it is complete the moment you offer to practice or hold yourself out as able to practice a licensed profession. No client. No service performed. No harm to anyone. Advertising is enough. If you have been charged, call Hochhauser Criminal & DWI Defense at 516-939-1529.

Education Law 6512 penalties

A Class E felony is the lowest grade of felony in New York, but it is still a felony conviction — and for a defendant whose livelihood is a licensed trade, the professional consequences typically outweigh the sentence by a wide margin.

What Education Law 6512 covers

The statute reaches anyone not authorized to practice under Title 8 of the Education Law who does any of the following:

• Practices a licensed profession;
• Offers to practice it;
• Holds himself out as being able to practice it;
• Practices as an exempt person while his license is suspended, revoked or annulled;
• Aids or abets an unlicensed person to practice; or
• Fraudulently sells, files, furnishes or obtains a diploma, license, record or permit purporting to authorize practice.

Notice how little the second and third theories require. An offer or a holding out completes the offense. That is the feature that makes this charge so readily filed, and it is also what makes advertising language the central evidence in a large share of cases.

A separate provision, Education Law 6512(2), targets the owner or operator rather than the practitioner: knowingly aiding, employing or holding out three or more unlicensed people. A business with one or two unlicensed workers falls under the aiding and abetting branch instead.

Which professions this reaches

Title 8 covers New York’s professions licensed through the State Education Department and the Board of Regents. In practice these prosecutions concentrate on dentistry and dental work, nursing, cosmetology and nail salons, and massage therapy, often through joint enforcement sweeps. Title 8 also covers medicine, pharmacy, psychology, social work, mental health counseling, veterinary medicine, optometry, podiatry, acupuncture, engineering, architecture, land surveying, and public accountancy, among others.

One correction worth making, because it circulates widely: general contracting is not a Title 8 profession in New York. Home improvement contracting is licensed locally — by county and municipal agencies, including in Nassau and Suffolk — and unlicensed contracting is prosecuted under those local codes or as a fraud or larceny theory, not under Education Law 6512. Engineers, architects and land surveyors are Title 8 professions, so someone holding out as an “engineer” or “architect” on a construction project does fall within the statute.

Defenses to an Education Law 6512 charge

• The conduct was not “practice” of the licensed profession. This is the central battleground. Each Title 8 article contains its own statutory definition of what practicing that profession means, and the defense is that what actually happened falls outside it — a threading service that is not cosmetology as defined, a coaching or wellness service that is not psychology or social work, an aide’s task that is not nursing. The fight is over the definitional article, not over 6512 in the abstract.
• A statutory exemption applies. Title 8 articles carry express exemptions — students in supervised programs, limited permits, out-of-state practitioners in defined circumstances, and personal or family care.
• Licensure status. These cases turn on Education Department records, and a registration that merely lapsed for non-renewal is legally different from one suspended, revoked or annulled. Retroactive renewal is common and can moot the charge entirely.
• Knowledge and intent on the aiding and abetting and credential branches, which are expressly knowing or fraudulent offenses. An employer who verified credentials in good faith, or was shown a forged license, has a real defense.
• The advertisement did not hold you out. Describing services accurately without claiming a protected title or a licensed scope is not a holding out.
• Reduction. In a first-offense case with no patient or client harm, the natural landing spot is Education Law 6513, unauthorized use of a professional title — or resolution through the Education Department’s administrative process instead.

Where these cases are heard on Long Island

Felony matters proceed to County Court after arraignment, and a parallel Education Department proceeding frequently runs alongside. We handle these across Nassau County and Suffolk County.

Frequently asked questions

I never actually treated anybody.

The statute does not require that you did. Offering to practice, or holding yourself out as able to, completes the offense on its own.

My license just expired — I did not lose it.

That distinction matters. The suspended, revoked or annulled branch does not reach a lapsed registration, and retroactive renewal often resolves the case.

Will I go to prison?

There is no mandatory prison term for a first felony offender on a Class E felony. Probation, a definite sentence of a year or less, and a conditional discharge are all available.

Is unlicensed contracting charged under this statute?

No. Contracting is licensed locally in New York, not under Title 8, so unlicensed contracting is prosecuted under county or municipal codes instead.

Speak with a Long Island defense lawyer

Richard Hochhauser defends unauthorized practice cases in Nassau and Suffolk County. These prosecutions rest on a definition — what counts as practicing the profession — and that definition is far more contestable than the felony charge makes it sound.

This page provides general information about Education Law 6512 in New York and is not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. Contacting our firm does not create an attorney-client relationship.