Tag: Rothstein Kass

Going Concern March Madness: Moss Adams, Rothstein Kass Battle for the Title of the Coolest Accounting Firm

Well, we’ve finally reached the championship match-up and it’s a battle of the coasts. , NJ-based Rothstein Kass will take on Seattle-based Moss Adams for what will no doubt be the crowning achievement for either firm’s busy season. Moss Adams disposed of their rumored dancing partner Grant Thornton while Rothstein dismantled McGladrey. Rehash over; let’s get to the bracket.


Will Rothstein be the ultimate Cinderella? Will Moss spoil the ball? Will Reznick Group mount a firm-wide attack on MA just out of spite? WTFK? But vote so we can wrap this up. If I have to look at another bracket in next 365 days it will be too soon. Poll is open until FRIDAY at 11:59 PT.

Going Concern March Madness: The Coolest Accounting Firm – The Final 4 Sans Big 4

Now that we’ve reached the Final 4 without any Big 4 firms (all bounced in the first round), some of you may have lost interest in Going Concern March Madness: Coolest Accounting Firm. Well, that would make you a loser and anyway, we must press on! Face it, you’ll go for anything to distract you from the fact that you’re stuck inside whispering sweet nothings to Microsoft Excel while spring is slowly emerging outside. And it’s a pretty compelling Final Four anyway. Let’s take a look shall we?


So you’ll notice that we have the very interesting match-up between Moss Adams and Grant Thornton, the two firms that have subject of merger rumors (unfounded!) since January. Obviously the winner here will enjoy the upper hand in any future negotiations between the two firms, so anyone from either firm wishing to upset the leverage here would be wise to take a page from the Reznick Group strategy book.

Speaking of Reznick, we briefly mentioned the fact that their first round magic was nowhere to be found in round two. A tipster filled us in as to why:

I think the higher-ups were embarrassed by the public calling out and subsequent mockery in the comments, not a single other email went out about it – reminders about the competition or the beatdown they suffered at the hands of the commenters 🙂 Serious loss of billable hours that day too, everyone kept checking the site all day long for more comments, emailing and IMing each other about it.

So make a mental note – if your firm’s leadership has a thin skin and isn’t down with wasting a number of billable hours, the Reznick strategy may not be the way to go after all.

Moving on to the second match-up we have the perennial dark horse Rothstein Kass against McGladrey. Rothstein continues their hot streak in GCMMTCAF after their impressive performance in this year’s Vault rankings and McGladrey is…well, we’re pretty surprised to see McGladrey in the semi-finals, to be honest. Perhaps there are sweet incentives being offered internally but right now we haven’t been made aware of any such temptations. Anyway, McG has quietly made a run, so it makes for a decent showdown.

All right, enough with pleasantries. Let’s get to the voting. Polls close tomorrow night at 11:59 PT.

First up – GranMA

Cinderella vs. Mickey G’s.

Going Concern March Madness Update: Reznick’s Magic is MIA; Grant Thornton, BDO on the Ropes

Look gang, since too many of you are distracted with doing billable work to email us anything half way interesting, I’m guess I’ll just update you on the progress in Round 2.


The two highest remaining seeds – Grant Thornton and BDO – are looking defeat square in the face right now to their respective opponents – Crowe Horwath and Rothstein Kass. First round comeback kid Reznick Group is currently getting worked by Moss Adams which makes should make us all wonder what happened to the teamwork we saw in the first round. Perhaps they’re a one-trick pony?

Finally, in the least talked about match-up, Mickey G’s and Dennis Rader’s favorite firm (ideas for something better are welcome) look like they’ll be taking it down to the wire. There’s just over thirteen hours left to vote, so get the word out sooner rather than later (sorry Clifton Gunderson).

What’s With All the Hating on Rothstein Kass?

Welcome to the post-marathon Monday edition of Accounting Career Couch. Today, an experienced industry accountant is looking to go jump into public and has an interview with Rothstein Kass’s Family Office group. Unfortunately, he has heard horror stories about R to the K’s financial services division and wants to know if it’s contagious to the rest of the firm.

Having problems at work and need a sage’s advice? Curious if using a sick day for your missing toenails is ethical? In a bit of trouble with the law and need an excuse that makes your better half look like a lunatic? ”mailto:advice@goingconcern.com”>advice@goingconcern.com and we’ll put your mind (or feet) at ease.

Back to our potential Kass Kounter:

My question is if you’ve received any recent news about Rothstein Kass lately. I’m up for an interview in their Family Office group as an entry level tax staff, but let’s face it – they haven’t had the best things said about them over their other divisions. Fortunately I’ve heard nothing about the FO group; everything sad/horrible/depressing has been about their FS division, for the most part.

I want to make sure I do my due diligence of this firm, first. A few years ago I was offered to start my career in accounting there under a summer internship in their audit group, but I turned it down for corporate opportunities instead. Now as I want to make the jump into public for the first time, I’m naturally looking back at RKCO…

Any idea as to why everyone seems to have only negative things to say about them? Whiners are always the loudest, I’m aware, but it does concern me a little that there’s so much taint over this firm’s internal reputation on the interwebs…

To directly answer the question, the most recent news we’ve received about Rothstein Kass was related to their ubiquity on the Vault rankings including landing at the #3 spot on their featured ranking.

Prior to the rankings, we reported on a few pre-Labor Day layoffs that occurred at the firm and the admission of new partners to the firm for 2010.

In the layoffs post, our tipster mentioned the following:

FS practice is getting demolished in NY and NJ appears to be getting more antsy with every move that management makes.

Not many details on “demolished,” as you can see but someone thought enough havoc was going down to contact us. However, another source told us that the context of the tip was not accurate and that things within the firm were fine. What other Kass Kounters actually think is unknown because the post had a grand total of zero comments and RK declined to comment for our article.

So, the long/short of it is – RK has a very good reputation by virtue of their lofty perch among the Vault Rankings but it appears the reputation in some corners of “the interwebs” might be “tainted” as you say. We haven’t seen any of this tainting first-hand so we don’t know why RK is getting a bad rap.

To help you with your particular dilemma – if you were interviewing with Deloitte or PwC (the only two firms that ranked above RK on Vault’s list) would you be concerned about what was said about them on the web? If your answer is no, then you should have the same attitude about Rothstein. If you answer is yes, then you’ll never get a job anywhere, ever.

People in the know are invited to enlighten everyone below. If you’d rather communicate with us directly, email us at tips@goingconcern.com.

Layoff Watch ’10: Rothstein Kass Making Pre-Labor Day Cuts

From the mailbag:

Thought you’d be interested in hearing that today RK had a few last minute “transitions” or as most know them “lay offs”, these happened in the FS practice in New Jersey about 6 weeks after the official “transition date” in which upper management stated that the “transitions” were over for the year and everyone was safe and could get back to work and not worry. Today we lost 1 supervisor, 1 pending manager and 1 manager all having started their careers home grown at the firm.

Performance reasons were quoted but no one seemed to have a clue it was coming and a pretty big bummer day. Rumor has it that it’s not yet over as some others were not in the office today, doesn’t help the extremely negative morale issue going on at this firm with doom and gloom expectations of raises coming post labor day.

Would love to see some more RK news hit the site from time to time if you get it, not really sure where the firm is heading, up or down and would be great to see what others think??? FS practice is getting demolished in NY and NJ appears to be getting more antsy with every move that management makes.

A voicemail and email to Rothstein Kass spokesman Robert Solomon were not immediately returned.

If you’ve got more info on cuts or other news at RK, get in touch.

Promotion Watch ’10: Rothstein Kass Names Four New Principals

Jeff Kollin, Camille Asaro, Frank Attalla and Navin Sethi come on down!


Asaro and Kollin rep the New York office, Attalla in Roseland, NJ and Sethi gets the nod in San Fran.

Ms. Asaro and Mr. Attalla are members of the Rothstein Kass Financial Services Group. Mr. Sethi, a tax Principal is a member of both the Financial Services Group and the firm’s Commercial Services Group. Mr. Kollin has been named Principal and Head of the Financial Services Advisory practice within Rothstein Kass Business Advisory Services, LLC, a Rothstein Kass affiliate. Rothstein Kass simultaneously announced the promotion of Rich Sumida to Senior Director at Rothstein Kass.

Son of the Kass (presumably, the firm is 50-ish) takes the mic:

“The collaborative culture at Rothstein Kass has ensured that our professionals are able to continually enhance their skills and expertise throughout their careers. Our ‘one-firm, one-floor,’ philosophy remains a cornerstone for our success. Staff at all organizational levels gain invaluable experience working side-by-side with seasoned industry veterans in support of our clients. The companies we serve, in turn, benefit from the continuity, proficiency and knowledge that result from our ability to hire and retain superior talent across practice areas and office locations,” said Steven A. Kass, Co-CEO and Co-Managing Principal of Rothstein Kass. “Camille, Frank, Navin and Jeff are engaged, insightful and dedicated members of the Rothstein Kass team, and have demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities during their time with our firm. On behalf of our entire organization, we would like to congratulate our new Principals on their achievements and thank them for their contributions to our success.”

Not much to add here other than 1) congrats to the new RK principals and 2) the “one-firm, one-floor philosophy” could have really helped a certain Crowe Horwath partner.