Latest
Fines to quintuple for badly behaved accountants
Chartered Accountants ANZ members voted to increase the maximum fine for firms from $50,000 to $250,000 to rebuild the sector’s image.
- Edmund Tadros
Top legal partners want to ‘eat what they kill’, not share profits
High-performing partners want a greater share of profit for shouldering the burden of a flat legal market.
- Maxim Shanahan
Barristers on losing streak with constitutional change
A vote by members of the Victorian Bar to include clauses that promoted diversity and made a stand against discrimination and harassment has tanked.
- Michael Pelly
How Aussie Jewish barristers banded together after Hamas attacks
Working long hours, usually alone, it can be a lonely life. In the days after the bloody attack on Israel, a WhatsApp group helped Jews at the NSW Bar come together.
- Ronald Mizen and Maxim Shanahan
- Opinion
- Industrial relations
India’s outsource industry is shrinking
The top players in the sector contracted their payrolls by more than 21,000 in the three months to September.
- Andy Mukherjee
Data Trackers
Financial Review consulting salary guide 2022-23
The full guide to how much you can earn at Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC.
- Edmund Tadros
PwC seeks absolution but can it really change?
The publication of two documents and a video apology for the tax leaks scandal this week was meant to be a circuit breaker. But it won’t be that easy.
- Edmund Tadros
Professional Moves
Vegas trips, five times the salary: Life as an NYC lawyer to the stars
Sydneysider Nick Saady moved to New York five years ago to study a Master of Laws at New York University. He did whatever it took to stay.
- Updated
- Ciara Seccombe
Hall & Wilcox eyes expansion with boutique takeover
Managing partner Tony Macvean says the deal will help the combined firm become the undisputed market leader in investment funds nationally.
- Maxim Shanahan
Yesterday
Tax Office halved $1.4m PwC fine for false privilege claims
A confidential settlement also prevents the ATO from taking action against five multinational clients who supported the claims.
- Neil Chenoweth
This Month
PwC’s global revenue growth lags big four rivals
The big four consulting firm says it is in the middle of an investment period that will pay off in future years, including a three-year hiring spree.
- Stephen Foley
- Updated
- Queensland Police
KPMG CEO pays tribute to partner
KPMG chief executive Andrew Yates said that partner David Ibels was “an incredible person” and will be missed by his family and colleagues.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Big four accountants
Big four ex-partner claims colleagues helped in tax exploitation scheme
The former partner, whose name is being suppressed along with that of the firm, hopes to file a limited defence to avoid incriminating himself.
- Max Mason and Neil Chenoweth
Why ASIC stopped naming and shaming the big four over audit quality
The corporate regulator has now flagged it is planning to begin reviewing the operations of the six largest firms from next year.
- Edmund Tadros and Patrick Durkin
Former PwC Australia acting CEO Kristin Stubbins to leave firm
The woman who led PwC Australia through the darkest days of its tax leaks scandal will depart in January after three decades at the big four consulting firm.
- Edmund Tadros
Deloitte UK staff raise alarm over talk by ‘anti-white’ academic
A professor who described Winston Churchill as a white supremacist set to speak to the consultancy firm’s UK employees about identity and “black excellence”.
- Steven Edginton
Unpleasant work or low pay? What’s behind the auditor shortage
ASIC chairman Joe Longo and Labor senator Deborah O’Neill have different takes on why auditing is struggling to attract graduates.
- Edmund Tadros
- Exclusive
- Consulting
Strategy firm Bain delays new starters by up to 10 months
The consulting company’s Australian office has deferred the start dates of its roughly two dozen new employees until as late as October next year.
- Edmund Tadros
- Opinion
- Obituaries
A distinctive thinker who transformed Australian law
Paul Finn made his mark as one of the great equity lawyers with his 1977 book Fiduciary Obligations exploring our obligations to act in the best interests of others.
- Tim Bonyhady
Commuters captured under tough climate regime
Carbon emissions caused by employees commuting to work or on business trips may need to be disclosed under mandatory new accounting standards.
- Patrick Durkin
ASIC bans ex-PwC partner Peter Collins for eight years
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said it was in the public interest for him to be barred from working in financial services for a period.
- Updated
- Edmund Tadros
That’s a rap: raucous send-off for new High Court judge
Robert Beech-Jones once left fellow judges “awestruck” with a Christmas Party rap, and he admits not being the best writer in the family.
- Michael Pelly
Hire us, not consultants, barristers tell government
The Victorian Bar says using “individual experts” would be cheaper and help overcome issues of accountability and breach of trust.
- Maxim Shanahan
US law firm reviews decision to rescind job offers over Israel protest
Davis Polk reconsiders dismissals after two students deny authorising letters from Harvard and Columbia groups blaming Israel for October 7 Hamas attack.
- Maureen Farrell
US regulator investigates PwC tax leaks after ‘untimely’ report
The powerful US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board is investigating the Australian tax leaks scandal, bringing increased risk to PwC’s global operations.
- Edmund Tadros
Big four audit, consulting model questioned in PwC tax leaks inquiry
The argument that the major accounting firms need access to specialised skills within their consulting businesses to deliver quality audits has been questioned at a Senate inquiry.
- Edmund Tadros
KPMG UK fined record $40m over dodgy Carillion audit
KPMG UK has been hit with a record £21 million ($44.4 million) fine by the UK accounting watchdog for failings in its auditing of collapsed outsourcer Carillion.
- Simon Foy
PwC’s US boss Tim Ryan to quit as race to lead big four heats up
Tim Ryan had been tipped as a potential successor to Bob Moritz as global chairman.
- Michael O’Dwyer and Stephen Foley
Sayers wanted to sell PwC’s consulting business for $1b
Luke Sayers was so worried about the conflicts at PwC that he spearheaded a secret push to float the firm’s local consulting business.
- Edmund Tadros
