Accounting Claims

Overview of the Committee’s Focus:

Professional liability claims against accountants have experienced notoriety with the failures of Enron and WorldCom, headline-making Ponzi schemes, and passage of the accounting regulations established by the federal Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Lawyers bringing accounting malpractice cases representing the accountant’s client, or lenders and investors involved in a transaction, may criticize the accountant’s:

• Tax Planning Advice
• Audit Performance
• Estate Planning Advice
• Investment Due Diligence efforts
• Internal Financial Controls Attentiveness
• Loan Due Diligence Efforts

In addition to breach of the common law standard of care allegations, claims may be asserted by lawyers for purported misrepresentation, as well as federal and state statutory and regulatory counts that may or may not apply.

The Professional Liability Defense Federation’s™ Accounting Claims Committee makes information available to members in defense of these claims that may include, for example, these subjects:

• The Role of Engagement Letters
• GAAP and GAAS Duties Updates
• Ethics (e.g., Conflict of Interest) Rules Developments
• E-Discovery Strategies
• Expert Witness Recruitment
• Advocacy Tips to Render Tax and Finance Complexity Understandable to Juries
• Verification Proof of Client Asset/Liability Representations
• Third Party Duty Arguments

Committee members are asked to contribute to article publication, to monitor the PLDF news and respond to member inquiries for assistance, and to assist in annual meeting seminar presentation planning.