{"id":1383,"date":"2013-11-10T14:57:23","date_gmt":"2013-11-10T14:57:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bignondekeyser.siteadwin.fr\/nl\/why-the-big-4-re-enter-the-legal-market-in-europe\/"},"modified":"2016-09-21T13:11:33","modified_gmt":"2016-09-21T13:11:33","slug":"why-the-big-4-re-enter-the-legal-market-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/why-the-big-4-re-enter-the-legal-market-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY THE BIG 4 RE-ENTER THE LEGAL MARKET IN EUROPE?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some will claim \u201c they have never been away from the\u00a0legal\u00a0market\u201d. Yes, but it is fair to say that their presence\u00a0has been\u00a0modest since Arthur Andersen and its legal arm\u00a0\u201cAndersen\u00a0Legal\u201d, counting more than 3.000 laywers\u00a0across the globe,\u00a0disappeared in 2002 following the Enron\u00a0collapse. Their\u00a0modesty in the last decade was no\u00a0doubt based on very good\u00a0reasons. Not only were the\u00a0regulators much more critical of\u00a0activities outside the\u00a0normal scope of the auditors at the Big 4,\u00a0but \u2013 more\u00a0importantly – the entire \u201cbusiness community\u201d felt it\u00a0was\u00a0\u201cnot done\u201d to combine and source consulting and legal\u00a0work from your auditors. Now more than 10 years later\u00a0and a\u00a0major Euro and financial crisis further, more maturity\u00a0has been\u00a0reached in the debate on the whole issue.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I think\u00a0that the \u201cattest\u201d function (this is the\u00a0truly independent opinion on\u00a0the quality of goods and\u00a0services) in our world is being\u00a0substantially revalued. Independent\u00a0professionals of top quality\u00a0(and well remunerated)\u00a0who attest that our food is healthy, that\u00a0our clothes\u00a0are manufactured in an ethical way, that our nuclear\u00a0power\u00a0plants are safe, that governments are accurate in their\u00a0budget assumptions and finances, that our financial information\u00a0about our companies are reliable\u2026. will increase\u00a0their impact\u00a0and value to our environment. It is leading to\u00a0a major\u00a0revaluation of the attest function. People are willing\u00a0to pay for it\u00a0what it really costs to be quality-wise at\u00a0the desired level. It\u00a0makes the attest and audit function a\u00a0real high level and\u00a0honorable function. It will attract top\u00a0professionals and smart\u00a0people who care about our community\u00a0and its good functioning.\u00a0The other side of this\u00a0medallion is the need for more and more\u00a0real independence.\u00a0This, in a modernized fashion, will allow\u00a0auditors to\u00a0work with tax advisors, consultants and lawyers,\u2026\u00a0but\u00a0only in such a way that makes it very clear that the auditors\u00a0are and will remain independent. The Big 4 are no\u00a0doubt\u00a0sweating in their own board rooms to figure out\u00a0how they are\u00a0going to realize this and safeguard their\u00a0future. In my view that\u00a0will only feed the process started in\u00a02002 to make the services\u00a0of the Big 4 stronger and\u00a0stronger in their own right. A model\u00a0where the referrals\u00a0from the auditors are not the driving force,\u00a0but where they\u00a0build a home for many talented professionals\u00a0who can\u00a0work together when it makes sense and is perceived\u00a0as\u00a0being OK. It also means that the already strong tax arm\u00a0of\u00a0the Big 4 will look how they can further strengthen\u00a0themselves\u00a0in their own right, have more CEO access and\u00a0strategic entry\u00a0into clients. It does not take long to be\u00a0convinced that having\u00a0top lawyers amongst you can dramatically\u00a0help in this context.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There is of course also another very good reason. Some\u00a0clients\u00a0prefer to have all services related to a transaction\u00a0handled by\u00a0one single provider of services. When they\u00a0purchase an\u00a0important asset, they are interested in knowing\u00a0the asset is in\u00a0good shape and physical condition, that\u00a0the asset is the best\u00a0choice for what they need, that it is\u00a0structured from a tax\u00a0perspective in the most effective\u00a0way and that the contracts are\u00a0safe. Client may decide to\u00a0manage the process with different\u00a0suppliers of services,\u00a0all best in class or may chose to have one\u00a0single party\u00a0accountable and responsible for all these various\u00a0dimensions.\u00a0The latter is often the business case by the Big 4.\u00a0Clients are and will remain open to both options. The market\u00a0will therefore continue to push for legal services to be\u00a0provided\u00a0by the Big 4.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some will claim \u201c they have never been away from the\u00a0legal\u00a0market\u201d. Yes, but it is fair to say that their presence\u00a0has been\u00a0modest since Arthur Andersen and its legal arm\u00a0\u201cAndersen\u00a0Legal\u201d, counting more than 3.000 laywers\u00a0across the globe,\u00a0disappeared in 2002 following the Enron\u00a0collapse. Their\u00a0modesty in the last decade was no\u00a0doubt based on very good\u00a0reasons. Not only were\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chroniques-nl"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1383"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2037,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1383\/revisions\/2037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bignondekeyser.fr\/nl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}