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December 19, 2012

The World’s Largest Holiday Disclaimer: 2012 Version

It’s starting to become an annual tradition – blogging about the world’s largest holiday disclaimer (here is the one from last year). Cary Klafter of Intel again shares what I imagine has to be the world’s largest holiday disclaimer, running for 15 pages, nearly double last year’s beast. And don’t forget Manatt’s funny holiday card with disclaimers…

PCAOB’s New Staff Audit Practice Alert: Professional Skepticism in Audits

A few weeks ago, the PCAOB published a Staff Audit Practice Alert #10 to remind auditors of their requirement to exercise professional skepticism throughout their audits. On its face, the fact that the PCAOB published an alert to tell auditors to do their job speaks volumes. It begs the question – why aren’t auditors already skeptical? I’m not convinced issuing an alert will do much by itself…

Meanwhile, the SEC issued this order on Monday approving the PCAOB’s Auditing Standard No. 16, Communications with Audit Committees (see this Gibson Dunn blog and Morrison & Foerster blog on impact on EGCs). And the SEC posted this report to Congress on assigned credit ratings yesterday.

PCAOB Brings Case on Audit Documentation

David Smyth notes this interesting enforcement case from the PCAOB that focused on process, not substance…

Note this interesting speech from the SEC’s Chief Economist, Craig Lewis, entitled “Risk Modeling at the SEC: The Accounting Quality Model.”

– Broc Romanek