Professional Services INDUSTRIES

Providing effective counsel and advice to those in the professional services industry requires a thorough understanding of their practices, sound judgment, and consideration of the special needs, sensitivities, and stakes involved in the legal and business challenges they face. Over the years, we have successfully represented accounting firms, law firms, corporate officers and directors, associations, and other individuals in the professional services industry in a broad range of matters—some of which threatened the client’s reputation or even the very existence of their business.

The substantial experience of our lawyers covers the full spectrum of regulatory, corporate and litigation matters encountered by those in the professional services industry, including such issues as professional liability and responsibility, standards of practice, licensure, auditor independence, contractual arrangements, competition, and complex civil and criminal litigation.

Experience

  • Our lawyers were involved in the landmark "Wouters” case on the application of competition law to rules of conduct of liberal professions, resolving at the preliminary reference stage the application of Articles 81 and 82 EC to the Dutch Bar Association ban on multidisciplinary practices.
  • We were involved in the proceedings initiated by a Belgian law firm before the Belgian Supreme Court against the Flemish Bar regulation prohibiting any form of cooperation between attorneys and members of other professions (accountants, tax consultants, management consultants, etc.) on the ground that the regulation infringes Article 81 of the EC Treaty.
  • We represented The National Academy of Arbitrators in an FTC investigation challenging the association’s ethical rules on advertising and solicitation; we obtained a consent agreement allowing the association to regulate the truthfulness and nondeceptiveness of its members’ promotional activities.
  • We represented five former partners of the law firm of Nussbaum & Wald in a suit against another partner over the distribution of the firm’s assets after its dissolution. At the conclusion of a five-day bench trial, the district court ruled that our clients were entitled to equal share under the Uniform Partnership Act.