Law.com Subscribers SAVE 30%

Call 855-808-4530 or email [email protected] to receive your discount on a new subscription.

Accounting and Financial Planning for Law FirmsLJN NewslettersNewsSections

Associates Need Financial Savvy: Ten Concepts Managing Partners Wish Associates Knew Better

By Ronald L. Seigneur
May 31, 2007

A solid grasp of financial and accounting fundamentals can enormously enhance the value of a young attorney's work product. I often saw evidence of this in my previous legal administrator role for a 50-attorney Denver law firm. In my current CPA practice, in which I serve more than 20 law firms on an ongoing basis, I see the same pattern in working closely with attorneys on tax planning and compliance, financial reporting, fraud investigations, forensic accounting, and business appraisals.

When I recently visited a law firm that retained me as an expert witness regarding a complex accounting matter, an associate attorney gave me an overview of several boxes of accounting records. These records included several thousand pages of tax returns, audited financial statements, general ledger detail schedules, and related documents. I would have to review these documents so that I could render an affidavit that the records produced by the underlying business client were satisfactory and sufficiently complete to allow a determination of a key issue in the litigated matter. The fact that this young attorney had a better than average grasp of the nuances of accounting and finance made my work much easier and resulted in a better result for the law firm's client.

This premium content is locked for Entertainment Law & Finance subscribers only

  • Stay current on the latest information, rulings, regulations, and trends
  • Includes practical, must-have information on copyrights, royalties, AI, and more
  • Tap into expert guidance from top entertainment lawyers and experts

For enterprise-wide or corporate acess, please contact Customer Service at [email protected] or 877-256-2473

Read These Next
Bankruptcy Sales: Finding a Diamond In the Rough Image

There is no efficient market for the sale of bankruptcy assets. Inefficient markets yield a transactional drag, potentially dampening the ability of debtors and trustees to maximize value for creditors. This article identifies ways in which investors may more easily discover bankruptcy asset sales.

Judge Rules Shaquille O'Neal Will Face Securities Lawsuit for Promotion, Sale of NFTs Image

A federal district court in Miami, FL, has ruled that former National Basketball Association star Shaquille O'Neal will have to face a lawsuit over his promotion of unregistered securities in the form of cryptocurrency tokens and that he was a "seller" of these unregistered securities.

Why So Many Great Lawyers Stink at Business Development and What Law Firms Are Doing About It Image

Why is it that those who are best skilled at advocating for others are ill-equipped at advocating for their own skills and what to do about it?

Blockchain Domains: New Developments for Brand Owners Image

Blockchain domain names offer decentralized alternatives to traditional DNS-based domain names, promising enhanced security, privacy and censorship resistance. However, these benefits come with significant challenges, particularly for brand owners seeking to protect their trademarks in these new digital spaces.

Supreme Court Rules Rejection of Trademark License Does Not Rescind Rights of Licensee Image

Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC The question is whether a debtor's rejection of its agreement granting a license "terminates rights of the licensee that would survive the licensor's breach under applicable nonbankruptcy law."