PCAOB 关注"四大"进军法律市场；德勤CEO: 我们无意在美开律所

PCAOB 关注"四大"进军法律市场；

德勤CEO: 我们无意在美开律所

向法律服务市场进军，进军，这是四大会计公司近年来的共同战略：

截至普华永道全球85个国家有2500名律师，毕马威在53个国家有2200名律师，德勤在69个国家有1800名律师，安永在80个国家有超过2000名律师。

而本周，彭博社的一篇文章报道指出，四大会计公司向法律市场的渗透可能会引发独立性问题。文章指出，SEC 目前对四大的这个战略拒绝发表意见，但是PCAOB， 也就是美国公共公司的会计师监督委员会则对此表示了关注：

“Existing independence requirements would preclude an issuer’s auditor, or affiliates of the auditor, from providing legal services to that issuer or any of that issuer’s affiliates,” PCAOB spokeswoman Colleen Brennan said. “The PCAOB monitors for compliance with that requirement and other independence requirements.” PCAOB发言人科伦南表示:“现有的独立性要求将禁止上市公司的审计师或审计师的附属机构，为该上市公司或其任何的附属机构提供法律服务。”“PCAOB负责监督该要求和其他独立性要求。”

而德勤的美国CEO 之前在接受福布斯采访的时候，则明确表示：德勤无意在美国开展法律服务，至于在美国以外的市场，该CEO 表示不做评论。

记者问Parnell: In the BigLaw space, there is a significant amount of speculation about whether or not the Big Four will be looking to eventually merge with a major law firm. What are your thoughts on that? Are there aspirations to ultimately move into the legal space?

德勤美国CEOEngelbert:  I can be quite direct.  Deloitte cannot practice law in the United States, given our other businesses and how we are regulated. Therefore, we have no plans to enter into the legal market or to compete with law firms here in the US. As you know, we work with lawyers in a very collaborative way to help our clients address their critical and complex business issues, transactions, crises, etc. We work very closely with them, but, again, have no plans to practice law or to compete with law firms here in the US.

鉴于我们的其他业务以及我们的监管方式，德勤不能在美国开展法律业务。因此，我们没有进入法律市场的计划，也没有在美国与律师事务所竞争的计划。正如你所知，我们与律师合作以一种非常合作的方式帮助我们的客户解决他们的关键和复杂的商业问题，交易，危机等等，我们与他们紧密合作，但是，我们没有计划去开展法律业务或者与美国的律师事务所竞争。

以下是彭博社的文章报道：

Law Firms, Regulators Keep Eye on Big Four Move to Legal Services

By Steve Burkholder, Bloomberg BNA

The Big Four accounting firms’ moves into legal consulting services are capturing the attention of law firms wary of stronger competition and U.S. regulators keen to prevent such services from violating auditor independence rules.

The announcement last month that PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP launched its own branded law firm, ILC Legal LLP, has focused attention on the newer, bulked-up players, according to Bloomberg Tax interviews with attorneys, accountants, and corporate consultants.

The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board said it is monitoring the accounting firms’ expansion into legal services to ensure it doesn’t compromise the independent audits of their clients’ financial statements.

PwC’s ILC Legal in Washington won’t practice U.S. law. It plans to focus on foreign legal consulting for U.S.-based multinationals, managing partner Richard Edmundson said.

The continued expansion of Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young LLP, KPMG LLP, and PwC “into legal services has the possibility to transform the global legal market,” according to a September report by ALM Intelligence, a management consulting and research company.

“The Big Four’s approach of packaging lawyers alongside accountants and consultants is attractive to clients,” wrote Nicholas Bruch, ALM senior analyst and the author of the two-part ALM report on the accounting firms’ advances into the business of law. Coupling the accounting firms’ tax services with legal consulting has proved to be one of the biggest draws for companies, Bruch told Bloomberg Tax.

Similar joining of legal services with help on mergers and on finance also has gained favor among companies, he said.

The Sarbanes-Oxley accounting and corporate reform law of 2002—and subsequent auditor independence rules—generally bar accounting firms from providing non-audit services to their audit clients, with the exception of restricted tax services.

However, nothing prevents the Big Four from marketing such legal and other non-audit services to non-audit clients, “which they all now aggressively do,” Harvard Law School professor David Wilkins and Maria Esteban Ferrer, both of Harvard’s Center on the Legal Profession, wrote Sept. 26 in the Columbia Law School Blue Sky blog.

The Securities and Exchange Commission declined comment when asked about Big Four firms’ growth in legal services, but the PCAOB, which operates under the aegis of the SEC, is watching developments.

“Existing independence requirements would preclude an issuer’s auditor, or affiliates of the auditor, from providing legal services to that issuer or any of that issuer’s affiliates,” PCAOB spokeswoman Colleen Brennan said. “The PCAOB monitors for compliance with that requirement and other independence requirements.”

The regulatory lines seem to be somewhat blurry in defining what services are allowed, including services for audit clients.

Harvard’s Wilkins said in the ALM Intelligence report that practice in the U.S. “has allowed the Big Four to offer some legally-related services,” such as in tax, regulatory compliance, financial management, and merger due diligence, “even to their core audit clients.”

Linda Griggs, a former partner at global law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, questions whether an accounting and consulting firm such as PwC, in diving deeper into legal services, isn’t further complicating the job of abiding by auditor independence rules.

“I think the monitoring of independence is difficult as it is without their also providing legal services that have to be monitored” for proper separation from any work with audit clients, said Griggs, who once served as counsel to the SEC’s chief accountant.

ILC Legal’s Edmundson, who also is PwC Legal’s chief of international business reorganizations, said the accounting firm is fully aware of auditor independence requirements and closely monitors attorneys’ adherence to the rules.

The PwC-branded ILC Legal will provide legal consulting only “to non-restricted and non-audit clients” of the Big Four firm, he said.

Catherine Allen, a long-time consultant on auditor independence and professional ethics, told Bloomberg Tax Oct. 11 that accounting firms that provide varied non-audit services, including legal, have to guard against non-audit clients becoming audit clients.

The Big Four accounting firms are sprawling, complex international organizations, said Allen, head of consulting firm Audit Conduct. An accounting firm providing non-audit services to foreign affiliates of U.S. audit clients can pose problems.

“You’ve really got to have proof that the policies and procedures that you have are actually working in practice,” Allen said.

In Bloomberg Tax interviews, Bruch cited ALM’s recent polls of law firm leaders to buttress his conclusion that law firms see the Big Four as rivals that could make significant inroads into the domain of traditional, full-service law firms—especially in non-litigation areas.

Sixty-six percent of those law firm partners and managing partners surveyed by ALM over the summer declared they were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about their law firm’s ability to compete with “alternative legal service providers” and accounting firms.

CPA firms moving into legal services was cited by 64 percent of law firm respondents as the biggest threat to traditional law firms’ share of the legal services market, according to Bruch’s study.

The numbers of attorneys in the legal arms of the giant global accounting/consulting networks have increased over the last several years, Bruch said Oct. 13.

EY Law Alliance, for example, employed 1,850 attorneys in 2001, according to ALM and the Harvard Center on the Legal Profession.

Today, Ernst & Young has more than 2,000 attorneys in EY network member firms operating in 80 countries, EY global law leader Cornelius Grossmann and Americas law leader Carolyn Libretti told Bloomberg Tax in a joint statement Oct. 12.

EY’s legal arm counts in its stables lawyers based in New York and California, “including attorneys who have been providing foreign legal services in the US since 2007,” Grossmann and Libretti said.

According to ALM Intelligence’s statistics for 2016, PwC’s legal arm employed 2,500 lawyers in 85 countries; KPMG’s legal affiliate, 2,200 attorneys in 53 countries; and Deloitte, 1,800 in 69 countries.