IRS Tax officers are getting paid by private accounting firms: watchdog
Regulatory capture, also known as “the economic theory of regulation” or simply “capture theory,” was introduced to the world in the 1970s by the late George Stigler, a Nobel laureate economist at the University of Chicago. Stigler noted that regulated industries maintain a keen and immediate interest in influencing regulators, whereas ordinary citizens are less motivated. As a result, even though the rules in question, such as tax matters or pollution standards, often affect citizens in the aggregate, individuals are unlikely to lobby regulators to the degree that regulated industries do…
Revolving doors on steroids and regulatory capture and insider’s insider knowledge
9 October 2017 Mark Konza
The art of tax administration in Australia December 2024 | SPECIAL REPORT: CORPORATE TAX
AFP warns alleged tax leaks PwC partners face up to 10 years in jail
The art of tax administration in Australia
Seven PwC partners join MinterEllison
Seven PwC partners have joined MinterEllison as law firms continue to pick away at the risk and regulatory practices of struggling big four firms.
Peter Forwood, Mark Rigby, Ashley Rockman, Nicole Salimbeni, Malcolm Shackell, Edwina Star and Garth Williams are concentrated in risk advisory and regulatory work.
More than 200 partners have left PwC since its tax leaks scandal last year, and partner numbers across the big four have dropped by 10 per cent, to about 3100, due to low demand for traditional consulting work.
New MinterEllison partners Garth Williams, Nicole Salimbeni, Mark Rigby, Malcolm Shackell, Peter Forwood, head of consulting Victoria Hepburn, Ashley Rockman and Edwina Star. Janie Barrett
Law firms’ nascent consulting practices have been a major beneficiary, with Ashurst and MinterEllison making multiple group partner hires from the big four this year.
Ms Salimbeni, who until recently led PwC’s local financial services consulting division, said law firms were a more natural home than the traditional consulting firm for some advisers.
“The work we do has always involved lawyers. What we do is try to implement their legal advice [to clients] effectively. So there’s a massive alignment with the services law firms provide,” she said.
“I can see why there is that movement [of consultants to law firms], and that’s what the market needs.”
Ms Salimbeni was a member of PwC’s top leadership team, then known as the executive board, and one of a team of PwC partners tapped in mid-2023 to help reform the firm’s governance structures.
Exiting PwC
The partners would not be drawn on the process they went through with PwC to depart, but the firm has been aggressive in enforcing contractual conditions on those wanting to leave.
At the partner level, the most onerous clause is known as the “rule of three”, which is designed to make it financially arduous for leavers and the new firm trying to take them on.
Boutique consulting firms have prospered as the major players struggle, but Ms Salimbeni said law firm consultants had the dual benefits of depth and significant resources. They are also free of the baggage attached to a big four brand.
MinterEllison also comes with a ready-made client book. The firm’s consulting partners primarily work with pre-existing clients, but are encouraged to add new, non-legal clients where possible.
Among top-tier law firms, Ashurst, Clayton Utz, King & Wood Mallesons and MinterEllison operate consultancies of varying sizes.
Ashurst, which has the largest consulting offering behind MinterEllison, last month picked up three consulting partners from Deloitte and EY.
Locally, legal offerings embedded in consulting firms have an unhappy history, but the law firms are betting that greater efficiency, the potential protection of legal privilege and dissatisfaction with big consultancies will attract clients to their offerings, which tend to be focused on risk and regulation work.
Minters’ consulting head, Victoria Hepburn, said she was regularly fielding calls from people wanting to leave consulting firms, and Minters was “certainly not closed to good opportunities” to make further hires.
Among the new recruits, Mr Shackell was chief operating officer of PwC’s risk consulting division and Mr Forwood led the firm’s financial crime practice.
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