Professional Liability

Services In-Depth

Accountants’ Liability

Akin advises accounting professionals nationwide on regulatory and legal actions running the regulatory gamut. Our lawyers assist clients in investigations and actions brought by the PCAOB, SEC, DOJ, state boards and other regulatory bodies.

Our practice is led by the first PCAOB Director of Enforcement and through prior PCAOB enforcement experience, we developed strong relationships with non-U.S. audit regulators and a deep understanding of their regulatory approaches.

Our clients include accounting firms, audit committee members and in-house accounting professionals. We also represent accounting professionals in class actions and other civil litigation involving claims of:

• Federal and state securities law violations
• Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations
• Fraud
• Negligent representation
• Professional malpractice
• Breach of fiduciary duty
• Aiding and abetting
• Civil conspiracy
• Deepening insolvency
• Breach of contract.

On the criminal side, individuals and accounting firms can be charged with a host of federal and state crimes, including conspiracy, bribery, perjury, securities fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud and forgery. Our government enforcement experience, highly skilled trial lawyers, preeminent lobbying, public policy and regulatory practices help our clients navigate these high-risk situations.

Legal Malpractice

Malpractice lawsuits by former clients pose not only a financial threat but an equal—if not greater—threat to the carefully built reputations of lawyers and their firms. Across the country, we defend lawyers and law firms against malpractice claims.

From litigating as to whether a party has met the standard of care to advising on whether an underlying suit will succeed in spite of alleged malpractice, our lawyers have a great depth of practice. In addition, we help clients evaluate ongoing legal malpractice lawsuits to determine the most effective trial strategies, the financial risks of a lawsuit, the likelihood of success at trial and the value of a path to settlement.

Representative Matters

• Representing audit firms in PCAOB and SEC enforcement proceedings alleging audit failures and documentation failures involving issues such as revenue recognition, disclosure of government investigations, related-party transactions and allowance for loan lease losses.
• Representing the audit committee of a board of directors of a multinational telecommunications provider in an investigation regarding potential accounting issues and related internal controls. Currently advising the client through a multiyear restatement.
• Represented the audit committees of two public companies in an internal investigation into whistleblower allegations of accounting improprieties at a joint venture. The investigation ultimately disproved the allegations and was completed on an expedited basis, which allowed the public companies to make their required quarterly SEC filings in a timely manner.
• Represented the audit committee of a publicly traded healthcare company in connection with DOJ and SEC investigations into the company’s revenue recognition practices, including counseling the audit committee through a multiyear restatement of its financial statements.
• Represented an individual before the SEC in an investigation of a public accounting firm’s audit of a biomedical company.