TheCorporateCounsel.net

May 25, 2007

PCAOB Adopts AS #5

Yesterday, the PCAOB adopted Auditing Std. No. 5 (and here is the PCAOB’s press release). It is expected that the SEC will approve the PCAOB’s new standard on an expedited basis.

Memos on the SEC’s and PCAOB’s guidance will be posted in our “Internal Controls” Practice Area. And I am putting the finishing touches on a July webcast to explain all the new internal controls guidance, featuring John Huber and some Big 4 experts…

Corp Fin Issues Section 16 Interps

Yesterday, Corp Fin issued these Section 16 interps. As he has already been doing, Alan Dye will be blogging about the nuances of these new interps on his Section16.net Blog – as well as writing about them in the upcoming issue of Section 16 Updates. Try a no-risk trial to Section16.net today – half-price for the rest of 2007!

A New Staffer Hang-Out?

Congrats to SEC Staffer Amy Starr for founding a groovy coffee shop in Northern Virginia (below is a related Washington Post article): “David A. Starr talks real fast, not because he’s a lobbyist but because he is a professional coffee roaster on the side. He drinks about eight cups of his specialty brew a day.

Starr, a 48-year-old principal at the lobbying law firm Williams & Jensen, is an expert in tax and pension law. His clients include Brooks Brothers and the YWCA Pension Fund. But in recent years he and his wife, Amy Starr, a Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, developed a passion for self-roasted coffee and this year they made it into a business, Beanetics Coffee Roasters in Annandale.

“We can roast 100 pounds of coffee — from green bean to bag – in an hour,” Starr said proudly. And yes, the beans, whether Costa Rican (his top seller) or Ethiopian, start off green before they are heated in the store’s roaster, which patrons can see through a window.

Starr began 10 years ago with a tabletop roaster in his kitchen and progressed to a bigger roaster in his garage. But his friends wanted more coffee than his hobby could provide them, so in February he opened shop not far from his home. “I scoot over on the way into work to check in,” Starr said, “and also have a great cup of coffee.”