This paper reports the results of a survey of 219 American Institute of Certified Public Accountant members about legal services their public accounting firms currently offer and plan to offer in the future, and how they would organize their firm to deliver these services to clients. The survey is motivated by the legal profession's current investigation of whether to allow nonattorneys to share fees and become partners with nonattorneys and by the American Bar Association's call for evidence on the current existence of multidisciplinary practice (MDP). Forty‐four states established MDP committees to recommend whether legal ethics rules should be relaxed to allow MDP. Relaxed ethics rules allow public accounting firms to employ attorneys to offer a full array of legal services to their clients. We find that public accounting firms already offer a number of legal services to their clients and are interested in increasing the offering of these services if allowed. The results also indicate that the size of the public accounting firm is likely to influence the types of legal services offered and the arrangements used to deliver the legal services to clients. The findings are important because they highlight the need for the legal and accounting professions to formulate rules regarding MDP.
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1 March 2001
Research Article|
March 01 2001
CPAs' Perceptions of the Emerging Multidisciplinary Accounting/Legal Practice
Kimberly E. Frank, Assistant Professor;
Kimberly E. Frank, Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
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Randall K. Hanson, Professor;
Randall K. Hanson, Professor
University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
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D. Jordan Lowe, Associate Professor;
D. Jordan Lowe, Associate Professor
University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
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James K. Smith, Assistant Professor
James K. Smith, Assistant Professor
University of San Diego.
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Online ISSN: 1558-7975
Print ISSN: 0888-7993
American Accounting Association
2001
Accounting Horizons (2001) 15 (1): 35–48.
Citation
Kimberly E. Frank, Randall K. Hanson, D. Jordan Lowe, James K. Smith; CPAs' Perceptions of the Emerging Multidisciplinary Accounting/Legal Practice. Accounting Horizons 1 March 2001; 15 (1): 35–48. https://doi.org/10.2308/acch.2001.15.1.35
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