Question - You recently attended your five-year college reunion. At the main reception, you encountered an old friend, Lee Beagle, who recently graduated from law school and is now practicing with a large law firm in town. When you told him that you were a CPA and employed by a regional CPA firm, he made the following statement: "You know, if the securities acts had not been passed by Congress in the 1930s, no one would be interested in having a audit performed. You auditors are just creatures of regulation."

Required: Draft a memo that highlights your thoughts about Lee's statement that auditor are "creature of regulation." Be sure to consider relevant evidence of a demand for auditing services outside of legal and regulatory requirements in your memo, and focus on the value that auditing provides.