Managing Whistlelbowers
Compliance Tip of the Day: Using AI to Embed Your Compliance Program
Compliance Tip of the Day: Trust and Verify
Great Woman in Compliance: Building Strategic and Effective Risk Assessments
Compliance into the Weeds: The Dark Side of AI in Employee Training
Compliance Tip of the Day: AI Assistant for Compliance
Sunday Book Review: August 17, 2025, The More Books from the Ethicsverse Library Edition
Compliance Tip of the Day: How a CFO Views Compliance and Risk
Data Driven Compliance – James Tillen on the Importance of Cross-Functional Collaboration in Complying with the FTPF Offense
What to Do When Leadership Doesn’t Take Compliance Seriously
Compliance Tip of the Day: Finance Models for Compliance
Compliance Tip of the Day - Extending Compliance Value Across Your Organization
Compliance Tip of the Day: Design - Centric Internal Controls
Adventures in Compliance: The Novels - The Valley of Fear, Sherlock Holmes’ Investigative Techniques for Today’s Challenges
Moving Beyond the Usual Helpline Data
Adventures in Compliance: The Novels - The Valley of Fear, Introduction and Compliance Lessons Learned
FCPA Compliance Report: Navigating Corporate Scandals: Insights on Governance, Compliance, and Recovery with Steve Vincze
Compliance Tip of the Day: AI and 3rd Party Risk Management
Compliance Tip of the Day: Strategies for Embedding Compliance into your Organization
Compliance Tip of the Day: Crowd Sourcing Risk Intelligence
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) announced yesterday that the effective date for QC 1000, A Firm’s System of Quality Control, would be delayed until December 15, 2026, though audit firms may elect to...more
The PCAOB’s recent information release, SPOTLIGHT Auditor Responsibilities for Detecting, Evaluating, and Making Communications About Illegal Acts, is a critical guide for compliance professionals. The SPOTLIGHT sets out the...more
Regarding compliance, one area that requires heightened attention is the role of auditors in detecting, evaluating, and communicating illegal acts. Recently, the PCAOB issued a document entitled SPOTLIGHT Auditor...more
On September 9, 2024, three of the SEC’s five Commissioners voted to approve the new PCAOB Quality Control Standard QC 1000 A Firm’s System of Quality Control. The new standard will substantially revise and refine public...more
The rapid rise of crypto assets has presented both opportunities and challenges for auditors, with regulators, practitioners, and businesses grappling to establish clear guidelines and procedures. Even though there is no...more
Fenwick corporate partner Ran Ben-Tzur recently led a small group discussion, “How can GCs identify, prepare for, and respond to pitfalls on the road to IPO?” at TechGC’s IPO Conference held in San Francisco. Below are some...more
The Nutter Securities Enforcement Update is a periodic summary of noteworthy recent securities enforcement activity, settlements, decisions, and charges. ...more
The PCAOB recently released a new Audit Committee Resource, which sets forth questions that audit committee members may want to consider incorporating into their ongoing engagement with auditors. The categories of questions...more
One of the hottest going-public trends in 2020 and 2021 has been the rise of SPACs - Special Purpose Acquisition Companies - as a vehicle for private companies to go public. SPACs are shell companies that are formed, funded...more
With 2021 now upon us, companies, auditors and audit committees are gearing up for another annual reporting season, coming off of one of the more turbulent years in recent history, which included a significant number of...more
The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants (AICPA) hosted the 2020 AICPA Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments this past week at which a number of SEC accountants participated, either...more
A. Adoption in 1962 - The SEC has regulated custodial practices of investment advisers since 1962, when it first adopted rule 206(4)-2 (the “Custody Rule”) under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (“Advisers Act”) under...more
Despite COVID-19 and concurrent situations, recent releases from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) demonstrate their keen focus on financial reporting,...more
Junaid A. Zubairi, Chair of Vedder Price’s Government Enforcement and Special Investigations group, served as co-chair of the 2019 ALI-CLE Accountants’ Liability program on October 17 and 18, 2019 in Washington, DC. The...more
To my knowledge this 10-K includes the first critical audit matter, or CAM, issued by a Big 4 firm. The CAM is straightforward and does not reflect negatively on the company or its audit committee or cast doubt on its...more
In a review of a PCAOB disciplinary proceeding the SEC took the rare step of cancelling the PCAOB’s finding that an audit partner of a Big Four firm engaged in repeated instances of negligent conduct during the audit of a...more
The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Division of Registration and Inspections has recently released a Staff Preview of 2018 Inspection Observations (Preview), based on the PCAOB staff’s inspection of over 160 audit...more
Always a fertile source of regulatory perspective, this year’s Baruch College Financial Reporting Conference featured a future-oriented theme in remarks by Chief Accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission Wesley...more
In 2018, the SEC continued to pursue many of the same initiatives and objectives it articulated in 2017, including emphasizing retail investor protections and keeping pace with technological change. While stand-alone...more
Under the current rules of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), foreign issuers are allowed to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) financial statements in their registration statements and...more
Always a fertile source of guidance, this year’s American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Conference on Current SEC and PCAOB Developments, held on December 4-6, was no exception. Discussions during this year’s...more
In this episode, Matt Kelly and I take a deep dive into the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). We consider the role of the PCAOB in both audit standards and internal controls for compliance. What is goodwill, goodwill...more
This year’s American Institute of Certified Public Accountants Conference on SEC and PCAOB Developments, held on December 5-7, echoed several themes from prior AICPA conferences regarding regulatory priorities of interest to...more
In a recent speech, SEC Enforcement Director Andrew Ceresney confirmed the SEC’s continued pursuit of investigations and enforcement actions relating to issuer reporting and disclosure, an area that remains a high priority...more
This week I have been exploring the Public Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) with Joe Howell, an Executive Vice President (EVP) with Workiva Inc. We have considered how some of the issues addressed by the PCAOB directly...more