INSIDER Files

One firm that doesn't mind being mentioned in association with Enron is Baltimore's Ellin & Tucker. The forensic accounting practice at the 100-person firm spent four years immersed in documents that played a key role in the recent conviction of Enron founder and former chairman Kenneth Lay. E&T

Manager Michael Petron tells the Baltimore Business Journal about a pivotal moment in the engagement: he saw a brief federal form signed by Lay in which he promised he wouldn't use bank loans to buy stock. But Petron already had seen documents indicating that Lay had done just that. "I said, 'My goodness - he did this,'" Petron said. At times, 10 to 12 staff members were working on the Enron job. E&T won the work when officials in the U.S. Department of Justice's Criminal Division who were assigned to an Enron task force recalled the firm's work for the agency in an international drug case a few years ago and turned to the firm again. Staff in E&T's 15-person business valuation and forensic litigation group created massive databases of Lay's stock transactions, which detailed where Lay used Enron stock as collateral or to pay off loans. They then compared that information with statements Lay made, such as communications with employees who asked if he was buying Enron stock, the Journal reports. Petron, 28, spent a year living in a Houston hotel room, interviewed approximately 100 witnesses and sat at the prosecutors' table during Lay's bank fraud trial. The firm declined to cite its fees for the job beyond saying it charged "standard rates." but John Hueston, a prosecutor from the task force, says the government paid the firm "a lot." For the full article, visit www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2006/06/12/story3.html.

Citrin Cooperman of New York is offering a new perk: staff sabbaticals. The new benefit entitles audit, tax, SOX, and litigation professionals to a one-time, four-week paid sabbatical if they have worked for the firm full time for six years, or if they have six years FTE from their start date. The benefit excludes partners and directors. Those who take sabbaticals may still take their vacations and other paid timeoff benefits. Upon return from sabbatical, employees must provide two written reports of at least 1,000 words each. The first documents their suggestions for improving the firm's operations. The second details their career goals for the next five years and includes a plan for accomplishing those goals. CC has FY05 net revenue of $42 million, 44 partners, 197 total staff and three offices.

Accounting firms increasingly are recognizing the benefits of forming non-profit organizations. Crowe Group of Indianapolis launched the Crowe Foundation to provide grants to nonprofit organizations while also creating opportunities for Crowe professionals to develop leadership skills in the communities where they live. The foundation also provides funding to organizations where Crowe professionals donate significant volunteer hours. Atlanta-based Porter Keadle Moore is a founding partner in the Financial Institutions Forum, which was launched to provide low-cost continuing education to executives in the banking industry. Law firm Powell Goldstein and The Bankers Bank are co-founders.

The AICPA is offering a new online toolkit to help accounting firms successfully use flexible work arrangements to retain staff. Dubbed "Flexwise," it includes policy and procedure guidelines, orientation, and best practices in telecommuting, job sharing and compressed schedules. Cost per employee is $15 for AICPA members and $18 for members. Flexwise was created by Rupert and Co., a Washington-based work place consulting firm. For more information, visit www.cpa2bix.com/flexwise.