May 14th, 2013
May 2013 A recent study in The Journal of Financial Economics suggests that a compensation structure that relies on financial performance measures can be tied to [...]
April 30th, 2013
April 2013 On March 4, 2013, NASDAQ issued a proposed new rule (Release No. 34-69030; File No. SR-NASDAQ-2013-032) which would require listed companies to have [...]
April 2nd, 2013
April 2013 On February 25, 2013, the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) issued its summary report on smaller accounting firms. The PCAOB described its inspections [...]
February 5th, 2013
February 2013 Data is valuable. The question is once you have it, how can you use it? Data analytics uses processes to extract and evaluate [...]
January 4th, 2013
January 2013 The False Claims Act, 31 U.S.C. § 3729 et seq., allows penalties of $5,500 to $11,000 per claim and triple damages against those [...]
November 26th, 2012
November 2012 The U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) jointly published a much anticipated guidance on the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices [...]
September 5th, 2012
September 2012 On August 20, 2012, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) released its first report on the progress of the interim inspection program [...]
August 28th, 2012
August 2012 In a quick settlement over Iranian-related illegal conduct, Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) agreed on August 14 to pay $340 million in a settlement [...]
July 10th, 2012
July 2012 UK-based Barclays is the fourth largest bank in the world, with operations in over 50 countries. Barclays recently received huge publicity pertaining to [...]
June 11th, 2012
June 2012 MF Global Inc. filed the eighth-largest U.S. bankruptcy on Monday October 31, 2011. MF Global would ultimately report the shortfall in customer accounts [...]
June 11th, 2012
June 2012 Billions of dollars are being stolen from the U.S. Treasury through a combination of identity theft and related fraudulent tax returns. To make [...]
June 6th, 2012
January 2012 Before its failure, IndyMac Bank was the largest savings and loan association in the Los Angeles area and the seventh largest mortgage originator [...]
November 3rd, 2011
November 2011 It just got a lot harder to successfully sue preparers of financial statements and their auditors under the 1933 Securities Act. In Fait [...]
October 28th, 2011
October 2011 On October 9, 2011, Governor Brown signed into law Senate Bill 459 regarding independent contractors. The law significantly increases the risks and penalties [...]
October 6th, 2011
October 2011 Many small businesses attempt to save taxes and employee benefit cost by classifying their workers as independent contractors. When business owners classify workers [...]
September 8th, 2011
August 2011 On August 16, 2011, the Public Accounting and Oversight Board (“PCAOB” – the regulator of auditors of publicly-traded companies) issued a concept [...]
August 11th, 2011
August, 2011 On May 17, 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced its first-ever deferred prosecution agreement with a company who voluntarily reported a [...]
August 11th, 2011
Intellectual Property licensing is big business, and is getting bigger. But most licensors do not earn as much as they should because they fail [...]
January 17th, 2011
Clients like fixed fees. My firm also likes fixed fees. Here is why my firm would prefer to work under a fixed fee arrangement: We [...]
December 10th, 2010
Imagine litigation in which the sales and profits of a particular product or in a particular region were at issue. Such questions are commonplace in [...]
November 16th, 2010
November 2010 Significant negative feedback from legal executives and groups caused the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) to delay implementing expanded financial statement disclosures [...]
March 17th, 2010
March 2010 Discovery requests regularly ask (often through form interrogatory 12.3 and a related document production request) for all witnesses interviewed, and to produce copies [...]
September 17th, 2009
September 2009 The Madoff scandal is the largest financial fraud to have ever occurred. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Office of Inspector General [...]
August 17th, 2009
August 2009 One of Bernard Madoff’s lieutenants, Frank DiPascali Jr., pled guilty last week to ten federal felony counts and settled an SEC complaint. Of [...]
July 16th, 2009
July 2009 Although there has often been a call for simplified accounting principles for smaller or non-public enterprises, U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) do [...]
June 16th, 2009
June 2009 In accounting, revenue recognition refers to the point when one is able to record a sale in the financial statements. In a typical [...]
June 16th, 2009
June 2009 Existing accounting guidance permits companies to report transfers of portions of financial assets as sales. The off-balance-sheet entities that enabled banks to keep [...]
May 16th, 2009
May 2009 On July 1, 2009, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is expected to issue their “Accounting Standards Codification” (ASC) as the sole authoritative [...]
April 17th, 2009
April 2009 In an April 2009 written Order following a three-day hearing, federal judge Cormac Carney criticized Irell & Manella for “ethical failures” arising from [...]
April 16th, 2009
April 2009 An accounting pronouncement highly criticized by the legal profession was formally revoked this month. The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued FSP FAS [...]
February 17th, 2009
February 2009 Government resources are usually allocated based on the political sentiment of the day. Those in charge of investigations understandably want to show that [...]
February 17th, 2009
February 2009 The audit provision within many licensing agreements is nothing more than a short paragraph in what may otherwise be a highly detailed document. [...]
January 17th, 2009
January 2009 In mid-December, Bernard Madoff was arrested for operating a giant ponzi scheme. After his two sons reported him to regulators, Madoff admitted that [...]
November 17th, 2008
November 2008 The Obama campaign shattered all fund-raising records. The President-elect raised approximately twice as much money (approximately $300 million more) than McCain. A surprising [...]
November 17th, 2008
November 2008 In an economic downturn, “business as usual” won’t work. Every company is (or at least should be) looking for ways of being more [...]
September 17th, 2008
September 2010 On September 24, 2010, the IRS issued Announcement 2010-75. This covers final Form 1120, Schedule UTP (Uncertain Tax Positions Statement) and related instructions. [...]
September 17th, 2008
September 2008 Every year, at least a few large hurricanes cause evacuations, flooding, and other physical damage. Businesses are interrupted because of physical damage to [...]
July 17th, 2008
July 2008 Cooperation with prosecutors by a corporate suspect has previously been one of the means of determining whether an indictment will be filed, and [...]
June 18th, 2008
June 2008 The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) proposed expanded disclosures regarding contingencies, most notably those arising from litigation. Unless delayed or altered, litigators [...]
February 17th, 2008
February 2008 A number of current stalled deals involve material adverse change clauses. Litigation in this area will increase because of uncertainties involving (i) the [...]
January 17th, 2008
January 2008 The Delaware Chancery Court issued a ruling in Ryan v. Gifford, C.A. No. 2213-CC (Del. Ch. Nov. 30, 2007) that runs afoul of [...]
November 16th, 2007
November 2007 Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) eliminated its requirement for international companies to reconcile financial statements prepared under the International [...]
September 17th, 2007
To maintain accounting records under generally accepted accounting principles, companies need to assess the likelihood of judgmental positions being sustained. The recent tax case United [...]
September 17th, 2007
In Regions Financial Corp. v. United States, (N.D. Ala., No. 2:06-CV-00895-RDP, 5/8/08), the IRS lost another battle in its effort to get information from [...]
September 17th, 2007
The attorney work product doctrine, now codified in Federal Rule of Evidence 26(b)(3), protects from discovery documents prepared “in anticipation of litigation or for trial.” [...]
July 17th, 2007
July 2007 Stock option backdating scandals have grabbed headlines for quite some time. These scandals were initially identified by academic research that noted unexplained stock [...]
January 16th, 2007
Updated January 2007 In June 2006, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued FIN 48, an amendment to existing standard no. 109, “Accounting for [...]
March 17th, 2006
March 2006 Alter-ego is one of the most commonly alleged equity-based principals. Where the facts warrant, courts will disregard the separate legal existence of corporations [...]
September 17th, 2005
September 2005 Beyond the physical property loss, your business will incur significant additional costs and will not be as profitable as before. Most businesses have [...]
August 16th, 2003
August 2003 In late July 2003, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) released a staff study required by Section 108(d) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. [...]