
KPMG and Fidal Won’t Be Going to Court In France Over Lawyer Poaching
Remember back in February 2019 when about 130 lawyers fled France’s largest law firm, Fidal, to go work at KPMG France’s new legal practice, KPMG Avocats, and Fidal managing partner Yves de Sevin was pissed and said the firm was going to sue the pants off of KPMG for “unfair competition?” Well, we have an […]

Legal Experts Think KPMG France Will Likely Get Away With Fidal Lawyer Poaching
Early last week we told you guys about KPMG France recently stealing away 130 lawyers (some reports say 144 or 145 lawyers) away from France’s largest law firm, Fidal, which is threatening to sue the Big 4 firm for “unfair competition.” But legal experts who were interviewed by Law.com say Fidal’s case against KPMG is […]
KPMG France Just Poached 130 Lawyers From a French Law Firm, Which Is Understandably Pissed
In Going Concern’s nine-plus-year history, Caleb and Adrienne have chronicled many, many instances of “competitive poaching” among the Big 4 firms. PwC and KPMG, in particular, have a long history of poaching from one another. But with the Big 4 firms’ legal brands showing huge growth among alternative legal service providers, what is starting to […]
PwC Defense Attorney Putting a Lot of Faith in a Florida Jury
Starting Monday, PwC will go trial in Florida over a financial crisis-era case. The plaintiff is the bankruptcy trustee for Taylor Bean and Whitaker Mortgage Corp, who is seeking $5.5 billion in damages, claiming that "PwC was negligent in not detecting a massive fraud scheme that brought down Taylor Bean and helped trigger the 2009 […]
34-Count Indictment Won’t Stop Accountant from Serving His Clients: Lawyer
Jack Weichman, CPA has been indicted on 34 criminal charges ranging from bank fraud to money laundering to filing false tax returns, among others. His attorney, for one, is flabbergasted by this situation: In a statement issued Thursday morning, Weichman's attorney, Theodore Poulos, said "we are deeply disappointed and, quite frankly, appalled that the government […]
Law Firms Need Not Worry About the Likes of EY Law, Says EY Law Guy
This is amazing. The head of EY Law Global Leader Cornelius Grossman is saying — with a straight face, presumably — that firms like his won't pose a threat to law firms. Saying that accounting firms providing legal services doesn't threaten law firms is like saying Uber doesn't threaten taxis, but okay! "The threat of […]
A Few Law Schools Come to Their Senses, Start Offering Accounting Boot Camps
“Lawyers, because they work for and with business people, think that they’re good at business. Lawyers are NOT good business people.”
Is the Pay Gap in Public Accounting Firms Widening?
American Lawyer has an interesting story about the growing pay gap in law, meaning a small handful of top guys are bringing in $10 million or more, while the low level grunts at the associate level are bringing home a paltry $160,000, on average. Let’s take a look:
Review Teacher Admits Review is Useless if You are Useless
I know some of you would rather have a quadruple wisdom tooth removal than peruse Above the Law (because lawyers, amiright?), which is why we do that for you. In today's Ask the Professor, Prof Joseph Marino writes: I have been helping students pass the bar exam for over four decades. Before me, my father […]
If You Aren’t Getting the Work-Life Balance You Want, Maybe You Should Sue
This Fortune piece is probably just one big troll but if not, this could be a reality at an accounting firm near you: A slew of gender discrimination lawsuits coming out of big banks point to something we all already know: women in finance don’t have it easy. A male-dominated industry notorious for its long […]
Friendly Reminder for Professional Ladies: Don’t Dress Like a Skank at Work
Why is it these memos are almost always directed at female professionals? Why does no one call out dudes on wrinkled shirts, ill-fitting pants that look like your older brother's hand-me-downs and awful, scuffed up shoes of the sort an elderly man with arthritis might buy out of a medical supply catalog? This passive aggressive, […]
Idiots Accused of Insider Trading Used Sketchy Post-It Method, Creative Digestion
Insider trading accusations are often boring, routine and totally predictable. But this reads like something out of a poorly-written detective novel, for real: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged a stockbroker and a managing clerk at a law firm with insider trading around more than a dozen mergers or other corporate transactions for illicit […]
If No One Will Hire You, Maybe It’s Because Your Parents Aren’t Offering to Pay Them
Today's dose of lawyerly schadenfreude comes courtesy Above the Law, which is pretty much to Going Concern as watching Hoarders is for people who aren't the best at keeping up with housework: Times are still desperate for recent law graduates looking for work. There’s no guarantee that you are going to get a good job… […]
If Lawyers From Certain Schools Don’t Need to Take the Bar, Should Accounting Follow That Lead?
Today, in "aren't you glad you majored in accounting instead of going to law school" news, we have this proposal being discussed on Above the Law. Basically, eliminating the bar exam requirement would somehow produce better quality lawyers who could hurry up and start practicing sooner, which means they can pay back their student loans […]
Another Reason To Be Glad You Are Not a Lawyer, As If You Needed One
The main reason for anyone here to read ATL is not for the razor-sharp wit nor timely commentary on the profession of law. No, it's to make all of you feel better about your own miserable lives. Exhibit ZZ: A person has placed an ad on the Los Angeles Craigslist board with the subject line: […]
Lawyers Suing Moss Adams Remain Unflappable After Judge Tells Them to Get Lost
As you may or may not remember, the largest Ponzi Scheme in the state of Washington was perpetrated by a man named Frederick Darren Berg. His company, Meridian Group, bilked investors out of $150 million or so and now the bankruptcy trustee for the company is trying to recover some of those funds. One of […]
Kaption Kontest Friday: Say Kheese!
Via the New York Times, ex-KPMG Partner Scott London (right) leaves court with his attorney, Harland Braun yesterday in Los Angeles.
FYI: Attorneys Think Auditors’ Legal Confirmation Letters Are a Giant Waste of Time
Mark Herrmann, the in-house legal columnist at Above the Law, has a bone to pick today and it's one the opiners out there are intimately familiar with: When I worked at a law firm, I knew that lawyers’ responses to audit letters — in which the firm confirms to auditors the status of litigation pending […]
Things Looking Up for Two Ex-Ernst & Young Tax Evasion Specialists; Two Others, Not So Much
For former Ernst & Young lawyers Richard Shapiro and Martin Nissenbaum, things couldn't get much better than a panel of judges overturning the convictions for your roles in selling illegal tax shelters. Their pals Robert Coplan and Brian Vaughn weren't so lucky, however: A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New York ruled […]
Arthur Andersen’s Bones Still Have Some Meat on Them
Hey, an extra $38 million for the WorldCom fiasco is an extra $38 million: Two law firms, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman LLP and Barrack Rodos & Bacine, announced the proposed settlement Monday. They noted that the lead plaintiff previously achieved settlements with various defendants in the case for over $6.1 billion plus interest to […]
Internal Control Zealots May Be Helpful in Preventing Accounting-related Reckonings
Lawyers. Gotta love 'em. They have many functions but when it comes to accounting and financial reporting, it's usually to sue the pants off those who make gross errors in these two areas. Maybe the company was stupid; maybe the company did something illegal. It doesn't matter. If some numbers are wrong and someone lost […]
The Deloitte Principal Who Wrote the ‘Watered-down’ Report for Standard Chartered Bank Has a Wikipedia Page
On Monday, we learned that Deloitte found itself in a bit of awkward situation with New York's Department of Financial Services because they "apparently aided" Standard Chartered Bank in hiding about $250 billion in transactions with Iran. In the order, DFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky states that Deloitte "intentionally omitted critical information in its 'independent report' […]
Lawyer Suing Moss Adams Seems to Have Hurt Feelings After Opposing Counsel Called His Lawsuit “Flimsy”
Anyone remember Frederick Darren Berg? He's a guy who had a thing – nay, a passion – for charter buses. It just so happens that he also was running Washington's largest ever Ponzi scheme to finance his passion. Moss Adams (who Berg says is not at fault) was the auditor for FDB's Meridian funds – […]
Dewey Think an Accounting Firm Could Go Bankrupt?
Michael Cohn over at Accounting Today wonders if an accounting firm could suffer the same fate as recently departed global law firm Dewey & Leboeuf. It's a question worth asking since the entity structures for both accounting and law firms are similar and mergers are common in both industries. But really, it's not as likely (although not […]
Andrew Fastow Has Some Food for Thought
The ex-CFO of Enron, oh humbly, asks: "If the internal and external auditors and lawyers sign off on it, does that make it okay?" History has shown us that, "that all depends." However, maybe things have changed? [via HBR]
(UPDATE) Things Are So Bad at Law Firm Dewey & LeBoeuf That One of Its Top Partners Left for KPMG
You might not be aware of this, but mega law firm Dewey & LeBoeuf is in a lot of trouble. It seems to have started back in February with rumors of financial troubles and things have spiraled from there. Partners leaving in droves. Late bonuses. Layoffs. Problems with K-1s. The bright side of all these troubles […]
Tax Court Not Convinced That F. Lee Bailey Didn’t Have Fun Owning a Custom-made Yacht
For those of you not familiar, F. Lee Bailey was one of the defense lawyers on O.J. Simpson's dream team of attorneys. His star moment was when he asked the lead detective on the case, Mark Furhman, if he had used the n-word in the last ten years, who said that he had not. When […]
The Distaste for IRS’ Tax Preparer Regulations Has Reached Its Apex
The only question is, why did it took take so long? A nonprofit group plans to sue the Internal Revenue Service and argue that the agency’s effort to regulate tax-return preparers is unlawful. The Institute for Justice, an organization in Arlington, Virginia, that seeks to protect individual liberties, said in a statement it will file the […]
What Pippins v. KPMG Could Mean for Your Firm
Ed. note: This post is republished from AccountingWEB. Any employer who has faced potential class action wage and hour lawsuits knows what a headache they can be. Due to a recent court ruling, employers have a lot more to worry about. That case, Pippins v. KPMG LLP, has caused tremendous turmoil and confusion among those […]
Could Someone Have Tax Problems Big Enough to Walk Away From $14 million?
That’s one explanation for a weird story where a New York lawyer acting on behalf of holder of a winning lottery ticket purchased at a Des Moines convenience store let the ticket expire rather than revealing the identity of the ticket owner. The ticket was turned in hours before its expiration by a Des […]
New York Court Invites All KPMG Audit Associates to Play in Overtime Lawsuit
Law firm Outten & Golden has issued a press release today announcing any House of Klynveld audit associates who are feeling a little short changed because they missed out on overtime pay are now officially invited to join in the fun. A New York federal court conditionally certified a national collective action lawsuit that alleges […]
PwC Now Picking Up Talent From a Big Law Firm
Namely, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. Pamela Olson will head up PwC’s Washington National Tax Services practice when she leaves her position as Skadden’s Washington office tax group on January 1st. From the sounds of it, everyone is pretty giddy about this, mostly because Ms. Olson is kind of a big deal. “Everyone in the tax community knows Pam,” said Mark Mendola, PwC’s U.S. Tax leader. “Now our clients will be able to gain from her wisdom. In the current uncertain economic environment, the counsel she will provide to PwC clients is certain to be more invaluable than ever before.”
Why does everyone know her? Well she’s pretty good at what she does and she’s been around. She’s been an assistant secretary of tax policy with the Treasury department, chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Taxation, a senior economic adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign (we won’t hold that against her), a tax adviser to the National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform and “repeatedly in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Best Lawyers in America for tax law.”
So not exactly a lightweight. All this and she never worked a day at KPMG. Amazing.
[via PwC]
Should an “Accidental” Tax Lawyer Go Back to School to Qualify for the CPA?
Back again with another edition of fix my career ASAP. Today, “an accidental tax lawyer” wants to obtain a CPA to bolster his small practice. Other lawyers look at him like he’s “crazy” when he discusses the IRC but our Regretful JD enjoys all the minutiae. Problem is, he’ll have to start from scratch since he has business background. Is this plan gold or is he a glutton for punishment?
Are you suffering from a case of summer-is-ending-which-means-busy-season-is-right-around-the-corner blues and are wondering if it’s time for a new job? Does your golf game suck? Do you wear