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McGladrey Interns Are Busy Learning Their Colleagues Are Boring, How to Use an Ice Cream Truck

Posted on by Adrienne Gonzalez

Remember your first internship? The thrill of getting that company-issued laptop, of learning the ropes, of being mentored by senior staff in things you didn't learn in college like how to get a coffee order right?

Well the McGladrey winterns are busy blogging about it, let's check in with Jamie, a tax intern in Iowa to see what those crazy kids are up to:

Day 1: When I arrived, I was shocked to see that there were only 13 students attending the program. After reading the agenda, I was also surprised that we would have breakout sessions where we would get to tour the office, ask questions to staff panels, and also go on a client visit. Now, I know you are thinking “yay, touring the office sounds like a blast,” but it actually was! The employees made the tour into a scavenger hunt which allowed us to interact with managers, directors, and even partners. They also had us using our creative side by taking a bunch of random objects and trying to relate them to McGladrey in some way. After the lack of creativity displayed in that activity, it was clear why we all chose to go to school for accounting!

After finishing out the day in the office, we had the option to attend a tailgating grill out at a local park. This was a great way to unwind the day and get to know employees in an informal setting. The highlight of tailgating at the park was when the ice cream truck came. Well, I guess it was more of an ice cream van but who cares, it sold ice cream! I’ve never ordered from an ice cream truck before so it was kind of a big deal.

Soooo…. you learned that creative activities are a loss for accounting majors and how to ask an ice cream truck driver for a Bomb Pop?

Alright, so we have to make it clear here that Jamie wasn't actually interning at the time she learned the intricacies of choosing the right frozen treat, she was participating in something called the Pathways Program which is basically like the marijuana of the cocaine addiction that is a McGladrey internship. She was so impressed by her first impressions of McGladrey — I mean hello ICE CREAM — that she happily accepted the internship she was offered after two days of indoctrination introduction to the McGladrey way.

Good for her.

 

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H&R Block is Not Letting McGladrey & Pullen Leave Until They Talk About This

argument.jpgSo the H&R Block/McGladrey & Pullen soap opera break-up has gotten more annoying. At first, it simply looked like a firm falling out of love with its parent company because M&P didn’t want to be stuck with a loser their whole life.
Natch, H&R Block wasn’t going to just let M&P walk away from the best thing that ever happened to the firm. M&P was not going to have that conversation and said that they were still walking out.
The Block feels so strongly that M&P is making a mistake, that it was announced late last Friday, probably in order to not make a scene, that H&RB sued M&P to prevent the termination of their administrative service agreement. Essentially saying, “WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT THIS!“
M&P is not impressed with this desperate attempt to be won back:

“We are disappointed that H&R Block has chosen to pursue litigation,” said McGladrey & Pullen managing partner Dave Scudder. “We are committed to respecting our legal obligations and are confident we are doing so. Thus we are confident this lawsuit has no merit. Under the terms of our shared services agreement, we have every right to terminate that arrangement. We have chosen to do so because it is the best business decision for McGladrey & Pullen LLP in order to serve our clients in the increasingly complex business and regulatory environment.”

M&P is over being held back by HR&B and wants to get out there on their own. Besides, all The Block does is sit around and prepare tax returns for people who can’t read the instructions on the tax forms. You’ve got no motivation, Block. Oh sure, you got into the online tax return prep business but now what? M&P just wants time to be alone, so please respect that.
Block Files Suit Against McGladrey & Pullen [WebCPA via CPA Trendlines]

Ladies and Gentlemen, Stephen Chipman’s Blog is Live

As promised, Stephen Chipman has started his blog with the first post going up today.

I am excited to provide this interactive Blog designed to foster thoughtful dialogue and information sharing between you and me. My Blog enables me to share with each of you my personal thoughts about our business and other important matters. I hope you find this Blog informative as well as useful. Please check back every Wednesday for a new post.


Unfortunately for you non-GTers out there, the blog is not public like Jeremy Newman’s so not just anyone can help him with his grammar (which we’re sure is impeccable) or spelling.

Despite being the blog being for GT eyes only, he’s still excited about spreading the good word through this new medium:

I’m delighted to be writing my first blog. One of the aspects of our modern culture is the ease of informal communication. As I noted in the announcement, I have no pre-planned features or stories, I’m just going to blog the way others do — in the moment.

It’s disappointing that Chip didn’t start the blog a little earlier, say, when he got the news about Sue Sachdeva’s shopping sprees. Catching him in the moment of that particular bit of news would have made for a good post, no? Plus, since he’s so close to Milwaukee, he might have run up their to see some of this loot himself in order to tell us what he thought of Suze’s taste in clothes, jewels, etc.

Our one beef with Steve-o’s first post is that it has too much of a journal feeling to it. Personally, we’d prefer he got on his soapbox about how the Big 4 isn’t all that, or why he thinks Davos is overrated. We realize that he’s new at this so we’ll give him a little time to get it together. In the meantime, be sure to inform us about his words of wisdom going forward.

Deloitte, Grant Thornton Settle with Parmalat Investors

check.jpgU.S. Investors in Paramalat — the disturbingly long-life milk producer — have settled their lawsuit with Deloitte and Grant Thornton for $8.5 million and $6.5 million respectively.

Personally, if you make the decision to be associated with a company that consciously screws with the natural dairy production of a bovine, we’d say you’re on your own. However, this is America, where if you lose an asston of money on an investment (despite the morally ambiguous nature of said investment, not to mention the shiesty management), you sue.

The case was brought by several funds on behalf of thousands of investors who said they lost money from Parmalat’s multi-billion-dollar fraud.

“It is very rare that worldwide coordinating audit networks enter into settlements like what we have,” said James Sabella, a lawyer at Grant & Eisenhofer PA in New York representing the investors, in an interview.

Lead plaintiffs include Hermes Focus Asset Management Europe Ltd, Cattolica Partecipazioni SpA, Capital & Finance Asset Management, Societe Moderne des Terrassements Parisiens and Solotrat, court documents show.

We don’t know about the statement that settlements are “very rare”. The Big 4 has paid out nearly $6 billion in settlements since 1999 and settlements this year have included Deloitte/American Homes and E&Y/Akai.

Regardless, the good news for the investors is at least they got something. The bad news is that it was far less than the amount they claimed to have lost:

The U.S. equity investors believed they suffered $138.2 million of damages, but Sabella said their claims might have been reduced by earlier settlements. He also said taking their case to a jury could have been “full of difficulties.”

A Deloitte spokesperson declined to comment pending the approval of the settlement by Judge Lewis Kaplan. Grant Thornton did not immediately return our email requesting comment.

This latest development in the story that never ends Parmalat case is the first that we’ve reported that doesn’t involve the persistence of the company trying and failing and trying again to chase down banks and auditors for money related to the company’s bankruptcy in 2003. From the looks of it, we’ll be following these developments long into the next decade.

Ex-Parmalat auditors settle US investor lawsuit [Reuters]