四大会计师事务所担心客户流失给跳槽去竞争对手的前合伙人发律师函

四大会计师事务所的员工或者管理层在内部各公司之间互相跳槽的现象颇为平常。主页君听说最奇葩的是国内有的四大员工甚至跳遍了四家。

普通员工在四大之间跳槽对前雇主无伤大雅，但合伙人跳到直接竞争对手后可能会对前雇主有些影响。特别是那些掌握大客户资源的四大合伙人一旦跳到竞争对手，可能意味着把手头的客户资源带到了新东家，同时也可能带走一批员工到新东家。为了降低合伙人离职对firm的负面影响，四大的合伙人协议里通常都有设置了相关保护性条款，比如通常会设置竞业限制条款，即要求合伙人离职后的一段时间内禁止为竞争对手服务；又如，合伙条款会禁止合伙人在离职时接触并游说firm现有客户到新东家；甚至在合伙人在职时每年预留一部分合伙人的薪水或分红作为保证金，待合伙人离开firm过了竞业限制期再支付给该合伙人等。一旦合伙人离职触犯了上述条款，老东家可能会依据合同条款采取相关法律手段。当然，上有政策，下有对策，离职的合伙人也有自己的办法，比如在离职时早已私下与新东家谈妥了合同，形式上没有加入新东家，但实质上却在“地下”为新东家工作。新东家通常会答应补偿老东家扣留的保证金。这种操作方式，老东家想采取法律手段时往往取证很难。合伙人掌握的客户资源也可能神不知鬼不觉的到了新东家。客户也很理直气壮。老东家对此只能忍气吞声。

上述四大合伙人跳槽情况在国内四大会计师事务所也曾发生过，而且在市场上也激起过波澜。但今日暂时不表，改日另行撰文聊一聊。今天所说的事儿发生在南亚大陆的印度的四大会计师事务所成员所。据称，2016年一年有大约800名四大高级管理人员加入了另一家四大竞争对手。大量的四大高管离职意味着大量的客户可能被带走以及有大量的中低层员工亦加入竞争对手。这对各家的冲击不小。于是，四大各家不得已都给前合伙人发送了律师函件以警示这些离职合伙人不得违背相关法律法规及协议约定。

以下为来自印度媒体的详细报道：

Wary of client losses, Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG send notices to Ex-partners 

MUMBAI: Professional service firms have started sending legal notices to partners and senior executives joining competition even as attrition rate hits a new high with companies increasingly poaching entire teams from rivals. 

In last one year alone the Big Four--Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG -have seen as many as 800 senior executives joining competition. 

Now, these firms are looking to ensure executives joining rivals don't take away their clients and avoid competing with the firm in their new roles. 

“The legal notice states that the partner should stop working with any client he used to work earlier with,“ a partner with one of the big fours who received such a notice told ET. “Not just that, the partner must also not work with any company that is client of the old firm, even if he/she has never worked on a project.“ 

According to people in the know, in the most recent case, KPMG has issued legal notices to some of the partners who joined Deloitte late last year. 

In one of the biggest movements in the professional service firms, about 20 partners and 300 executives quit KPMG in October last year and joined Deloitte. 

Besides the Big Four, some other major consultants such as Grant Thornton and BDO, too, have seen a fair amount of partners joining them from competition in recent times. Industry trackers said sending legal notices to exiting employees -something unheard of till recently -has been happening quite often lately even as poaching has become rampant in the industry. 

Firms including EY and PwC have sent legal notices to partners who quit them to join the competition, they said. 

In some cases the firms are also threatening partners that their capital money would be held back, industry trackers said. 

Capital money is part of partner's salary contributed over the years and in most cases is part of the salary when he quits. 

Confirming this, a partner who recently moved from one firm to another said: “I was asked to not work for any client that my earlier firm has ever worked with; this was absurd, so I refused to comply. They have held back my capital money, which is about Rs 1.5 crore, for more than a year now.” Some of the firms, however, said they avoid such steps. 

“Very few firms take that option; most would expect the future employer to bear the consequences of the cost of non-compete which is forfeiture of capital or variable compensation,“ said Milind Kothari, managing partner at BDO India. 

The firm has hired 40 partners and about 400 executives from competition in last few months. 

According to industry insiders, in most cases, the new firm tends to compensate the partners for the capital money. 

Email queries sent to KPMG, Deloitte and EY did not elicit any response as of press time on Friday. 

A PwC spokesperson said the firm “maintains strict confidentiality of its clients' information and imposes suitable obligations on both current and former partners as well as staff “. “Whilst we are not aware of any infractions in this regard, suitable action is taken for any breach or apprehended breach of this obligation,“ the person said. 

Experts attributed the sudden rise in partners jumping ships to macroeconomic and profession-specific reasons. 

“There are mainly two reasons for the increase in partner movements,“ said Ketan Dalal, managing partner at advisory firm Katalyst Advisors. “The growth in the economy (and significant regulatory changes) has led to related opportunities. Also, in the last 5-7 years, a significant number of people have risen through the ranks, but leadership positions are limited, which often creates movement within the firms.“ 

Dalal had quit as western regional managing partner at PwC India in June to start his own boutique firm. 

Source： https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

参考来源： 印度时报网   

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