TheCorporateCounsel.net

For the many of you that have registered for our Conferences coming up next Monday, October 24th, we have posted the “Course Materials” (attendees received a special ID/PW yesterday via email that will enable you to access them; note that copies will be available in Houston). The Course Materials are better than ever before – with numerous sets of talking points comprising 180 pages of practical guidance. We don’t serve typical conference fare (ie. regurgitated memos and rule releases); our conference materials consist of originally crafted practical bullets and examples. Our expert speakers certainly have gone the extra mile this year!

Here is some other info:

– How to Attend by Video Webcast: If you are registered to attend online, just go to the home page of TheCorporateCounsel.net or CompensationStandards.com to watch it live or by archive (note that it will take a few hours to post the video archives after the panels are shown live). A prominent link called “Enter the Conference Here” – which will be visible on the home pages of those sites – will take you directly to the Conference (and on the top of that Conference page, you will select a link matching the video player on your computer: Windows Media or Flash Player).

Remember to use the ID and password that you received for the Conferences (which may not be your normal ID/password for TheCorporateCounsel.net or CompensationStandards.com). If you are experiencing technical problems, follow these webcast troubleshooting tips. Here are the conference agendas; times are Central.

– How to Earn CLE Online: Please read these “FAQs about Earning CLE” carefully to see if it’s possible for you to earn CLE for watching online – and if so, how to accomplish that. Remember you will first need to input your bar number(s) and that you will need to click on the periodic “prompts” all throughout each Conference to earn credit. Both Conferences will be available for CLE credit in all states except for a few – but hours for each state vary; see our “CLE Credit By State” list.

– Register Now to Watch Online: There is still time to register for our upcoming pair of executive pay conferences – which starts on Monday, October 24th – to hear Keith Higgins, etc. If you can’t make it to Houston to catch the program in person, you can still watch it by video webcast, either live or by archive. Register now to watch it online.

– Register in Houston to Watch In-Person: Starting on Friday, you will no longer be able to register to attend in Houston through this site – but you can still register to attend when you arrive in Houston! You just need to bring payment with you to the conference and register in-person. Through Thursday, you can still register online to attend in Houston…

Auditor Liability: Malpractice Claims Remain Low

Here’s an excerpt from this “Audit Analytics” blog about auditor liability:

For five consecutive years, the number of auditor malpractice claims against one of the Big Four auditors has stood in the single digits. A high of 46 claims was reached in 2002 – reflecting the chaos in the wake of the dot-com bubble – whereas only two claims were filed during each of the years 2014 and 2015. 2015 was also a relatively quiet year for auditor malpractice settlements. The totals of such cases were not enough to break into the Top 50 All Time Accounting Malpractice Settlements since 1991- the threshold of which is now $68 Million, as shown in the chart below.

Here’s an excerpt about restatements:

After six years of relatively steady levels, the total number of Financial Restatement disclosures filed in 2015 dropped by 12.7%. The total number of Re-issuance Restatements and the number of companies restating reached a low of 161 disclosures issued by 141 companies. Similarly, the number of Revision Restatements in 2015 also showed a decline. They dropped to 516 from 605 the year before, and accounted for 76.2% of the restatements disclosed.

The largest negative restatement in 2015 came from Alphabet, Inc. (Google’s parent). The $711 million adjustment reduced Alphabet’s previously reported 2014 net income by roughly 2%. Although the $711 million adjustment was the largest in the past three years, it was still dramatically less than amounts disclosed from 2002 to 2006.

SEC Filings: Best of 2015

Here’s an excerpt from this “Audit Analytics” blog (also see this “Part 2” of that blog):

In this post, our second annual “best-of-the-year” review, we’ll look at 2015 filings for some of the highlights of the year: the largest restatement, for example, and the biggest overseas stash. We’ll also look at lengthy comment letter correspondence, give a quick recap of auditor ratification, present some notable non-timely filings, and update disclosure controls.

– Broc Romanek