Demand continues to rise for help of forensic accountants - Portland Business Journal:

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Those industries include the retail, financial services, schools and universities, charitable and health care institutions. They also include a host of othe contexts where serious economic and legal consequencez may arisefrom disorganization, a lack of accounting controls or a combination of thesr factors. Commonly experienced consequencesw — often leading to the need for retentionj of alawyer — include financial losses, bankruptcy, employee discipline, government regulatory sanctions, and at criminal charges.
When retained to address and resolvethesre issues, many lawyers hire a forensic accountant to consult and Law practices that involve regulatory governmental investigations and the defense of criminal increasingly rely on forensic accountante to collaborate in the initial investigation, through the legalk and factual analysis of the evidencd under consideration, and ultimately, the decision makingf and problem resolution phases of lawyers’ representation. What is forensixc accounting? A top expert in the field, D.
Larryy Crumbley, the KPMG Professor of Accountingb at LouisianaState University, describes it as accounting that is suitablee for legal review, offering the highesft level of assurance, and including the now generally acceptede connotation of having been arrived at in a scientificf fashion. That is, he adds, forensic accounting is sufficientlyy thorough and complete and ofsuch quality, that it woulx be sustainable in an adversarial legal proceeding or withinm some judicial or administrative review. Although they are accountantsd first, forensic accountants must posses skills that extend farbeyond “bean counting.
” These professional s are called upon to use investigative instinct and intuition, ability to evaluate documents, and a critica l faculty that can withstand testing (in the scientifi c context) and judicial scrutiny (in the legal context). Practically speaking, the current together with the trens of heightened governmental regulation and means forensic accountants are being soughf out directly by businesses of evertstripe — not only to solve problemd but to prevent them from occurring in the firs t place. These specialists have expanded their pallet to includrrisk assessments, certain aspects of Sarbanes-Oxley compliance and countless varietiee of fraud prevention.
Computerf and other technological innovations have evolved at warp speed over thepast This, combined with the rapidity of enormous financial declines WorldCom, Lehman Brothers, to name but a few), have contributex to a greater and greater reliance on forensixc accountants to get to the bottom of whatever financiapl or regulatory issue requires attention. In where investigation and verification is whether bygovernment officials, shareholders, friendas or relatives, use of a forensiv accountant is almost always welcomed and Dr. Cromley, quoting the founder of the National Association of Certifiexd FraudExaminers (which has 15,000 memberse in the U.S.
alone), observese that forensic accounting “marries the audito r with the investigator.” These two functions are invaluable in detecting spotting irregularities andotherwise determining, to a very high degrew of certainty, what happened, how it happenes and ultimately, the quantitative impact of Those who rely on forensic accountants to infused our work with greater accuracy and reliabilityu know that they have becoms an essential part of our toolkit. Lawyers in the fieldsa of regulatory compliance, government investigations and criminalk defense cannot properly conduct most investigatione without aforensic accountant.
As a result, the demand for thes e professionals has grown steadily and professional organization s representing them have become active in certificationand accreditation. These are welcome developments, as professional and businesses alike foreseeably face more and greater scrutinh as we look tothe