That's a good one Bob but you really shouldn't tell old people jokes
Or any firm for that matter. There’s probably some opinions on this but allegedly at PwC it’s 54 on the low end and if you’re approaching the firm’s mandatory retirement age of 60 then you’re definitely not getting the bump.
The reason we bring it up is that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has granted new life to an age discrimination lawsuit against PwC. Two advisory professionals, Harold Schuler and C. Westbrook Murphy’s lawsuit alleges that P. Dubs de-nied their admittance because they were close to the Firm’s mandatory retirement age.
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As we mentioned earlier this week, PwC loves Oscar time. It’s easily the biggest display of Big 4 shameless self-promotion and no one — not even us, (sans Francine?) — can blame them.
The Carpetbagger has a chat with two of the partners, Rick Rosas and Brad Oltmanns that touched on a number of things, like exclusivity, “there’s only been 12 partners to do this” and secrecy, “we go to a very quiet, windowless room in an undisclosed location”. but just because they’re counting ballots don’t get the idea that they aren’t working:
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Some of the best minds in my business — writing and talking about accounting and the accounting/audit industry — are not for IFRS. One of the arguments they try to use against me, “Hey Francine, aren’t you anti Big 4? Why are you handing them more government-mandated windfall profit?” is the Sarbanes-Oxley argument. Since the audit firms — especially the Four Horsemen of the “too much regulation” apocalypse — made so much money on Sarbanes-Oxley, it must be wrong.
If there were an anti-intellectual reason to be against IFRS — that is, one that can be readily appreciated by someone who is not super-technical GAAPy — it would be the, “if it’s good for the Big 4 it must be bad” argument. The other anti-intellectual argument against IFRS is the xenophobic one (there I go using a big word to describe an anti-intellectual argument).
The “No-IFRS” camp loves to say convergence gives the keys to capitalism to the “socialist Europeans.” The US is the best country in the world and we’re not going to let some stinkin’ foreigners tell us how to count our profits.
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James Gansman, a former E&Y partner in transaction services, was sentenced to one year and one day in jail on Monday after being convicted on six counts of securities fraud last year.
Gansman had provided his mistress, Donna Murdoch, with tips on mergers that Ernst & Young were advising which she subsequently traded on. Despite the help, Murdoch needed more money and she began an affair with another man who used the tips to make trades.
To add insult to injury, Murdoch ultimately cooperated with investigators and testified against Gansman. She is still awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to fifteen charges of securities fraud, obstruction of justice, and making false statements.
Beside making bad relationship choices, Gansman’s hot tips were in violation of E&Y’s “written policies and the duty of trust owed to the firm’s clients.” That extra day in prison should give him just enough time to study better decision making.
Ex-Ernst & Young Partner Gansman Sentenced To 1 Year, Day In Prison [WSJ]
If you ever get an interview at Marcum, we suggest you break out whatever textbooks you have left, find some stimulants and cram the night before:
[My friend] had some crazy ancient partner interview her and he was talking to her and asked what her favorite grad class was and she told him one…so he wrote down 3 problems gave her code sections etc. and said i’ll be back in an hour and walked out and she was left there alone to solve them. He came back in and said i give this a B+ and then they offered her a position.
Or you could just ask the Accountant of the Decade to develop a new review course.
Six current and former partners at Ernst & Young were charged, along with the firm, by the SEC late yesterday in relation to the audits the firm performed of Bally Total Fitness’ financial statements from 2001 to 2003.
Bally settled accounting fraud charges with the SEC in 2008 that were related to its financial statements from 1997 to 2003.
Because everyone and their dog was freaking out over Enron in 2002 and putting the screws to their clients to follow GAAP, E&Y had identified Bally as “one of E&Y’s riskiest 18 accounts and as the riskiest account in the Lake Michigan Area.”
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A friend of GC recently brought up the holy grail of public accounting: admission to the partnership. We were informed that in one Big 4 office in the west, the timeline for making partner had recently increased from 12 – 13 years to 15 – 16 years.
Maybe three additional years after a dozen is NBD but it might cause some to jump ship.
We would assume that this trend would be more likely in smaller markets but we’re opening this to you to discuss what you’re hearing about your office and firm.
Vote in our poll below about your partner aspirations and discuss further in the comments (and anything else partner-related for that matter). For the current partners kindly give your future partners some perspective on the journey. The good, the bad, whatever.
Today in non-Patrick Byrne Grant Thornton news, the Hong Kong and International firms are now named in a new writ related to the scandal involving nowhere-to-be-found-former-partner Gabriel Azedo.
We imagine GT is less than thrilled with this latest development since they probably felt pretty good about firing Gabe’s ass the moment they found out he was a liability. The new writ states that the firms are ‘vicariously liable’ for $10.3 million.
There’s no indication that Eddie Nusbaum & Co. have put out an APB on Gabe in order to track him down and get all Jack Bauer on his ass. If it were us, we’d have every SD scouring the Earth* for this guy.
Until that happens, Grant Thornton is in deny ’til you die mode, saying that it will be ‘defended vigorously’ and that they expect to be ‘fully exonerated.’ God, will someone come up with a new press release for these scandals?
Grant Thornton linked to fraud claims [FT]
*You’re a Global Six Firm after all
The accounting firm awards bonanza has begun stateside. After last week’s Accountancy Age awards, Ernst & Young has now been named “Best Accounting Firm to Hedge Fund Industry” at the inaugural Hedge Fund Manager Week US Service Provider Awards.
While this is certainly a less comprehensive ceremony than the Accountancy Age Awards, it should not be taken any less seriously. This is a sincere effort on the part of the hedge fund industry to recognize who has bent over backwards the farthest for them. Nice work, E&Y.
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Some leadership changes for Deloitte are being reported in the DC area, as Gary Tabach will be the new partner in the charge of the Southeast region:
Gary Tabach, Deloitte LLP’s Greater Washington managing partner, has been promoted to vice chairman and regional managing partner for the accounting and consulting firm’s Southeast region.
He is replacing Maritza Montiel, who has been named managing partner of leadership development and succession.
Tabach now oversees some 10,200 staffers in 20 offices from Baltimore to San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Mr. Tabach still has to do most of the heavy lifting for his old job as he will remain the DC managing partner.
Ms. Montiel’s new position, managing partner of leadership development and succession, strikes as mysterious. That particular title gives the impression that she is “partner in charge of telling other partners that they need to lock it up or they’re fired”. If we’re in the ballpark let us know and keep us informed about any leadership changes for your office or region.
Deloitte’s Gary Tabach lands bigger regional role [Washington Business Journal (subscription required)]
Earlier:
New Deloitte Consulting CEO Plugs Magazine Lists, Shuns Facebook Fans
