You are a senior manager for the highly successful regional CPA firm of Fine, Dee, Evah, Dense, LLP (Fine). Since its inception nearly 30 years ago, Fine’s audit practice has exclusively consisted of auditing private and not-for-profit organizations. Recently, the partners have been considering an opportunity to audit a publically-traded company for the company your team has selected.The primary reason Fine has not heretofore ventured into auditing publically-traded companies is because of the potential risk and legal liability associated with auditing public companies. However, Fine has been a bit stagnant, business-wise, for the past few years, and some of the older and more risk-adverse partners are beginning to retire. Consequently, the lure of the often-lucrative and prestigious opportunity to audit a public company has become too hard to resist, so the partners have decided to pursue the chance to audit this company.

On a beautiful early-September morning you are called into the senior partner’s office and told you and your team have been selected to lead the first-ever effort to audit a publically-traded company for Fine. You are honored, but also know auditing a public company is a bit more tricky and complicated than auditing private and not-for-profit organizations. Fortunately, the senior partner had considerable experience early in his career with another firm in auditing public companies and told you he would be with you all the way. Relieved, you asked him what he wanted you to do. He tossed you the most recent Form 10-K of the company you selected and gave you the following assignments:

Describe the following issues:

Ethics and Legal Issues

The ethics and sophistication of top management and cultures where the company operates.

Have there been significant auditing or accounting issues raised in the recent past?

Did they have disputes with their previous audit firm?

Is this company or industry particularly susceptible to lawsuits or other legal proceedings?       

Evaluate the regulatory and compliance requirements of this company:

Regulatory and Compliance Concerns

The compliance requirements of this company.

Is it subject to a high-level of governmental regulation?

Are employees unionized? Are they generally compliant with Sarbanes-Oxley and other regulatory rules?