Peter J. Larkin

Peter Larkin provides legal counsel and representation to accountants and accounting firms in connection with all aspects of their businesses. He is co-chair of Wilson Elser’s national Accountants practice. In addition to professional malpractice defense and commercial disputes, Peter’s practice encompasses risk management, ethics proceedings, and transactional matters involving accounting firms. He also represents businesses and banking institutions in a wide array of commercial disputes.

Firm/Organization: Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP

Blogs: Professional Liability Advocate

Latest Articles

Professional Liability Advocate

Accountants M&A Alert: New AICPA Guidance on Transfer of Client Files

By Peter J. Larkin

October 27, 2016

If you are selling or acquiring an accounting practice, you need to read the AICPA’s new guidance “Transfer of Files and Return of Client Records in Sale, Transfer, Discontinuance or Acquisition of a Practice,” which clarifies the obligations of the selling and the acquiring parties and explains how to deal with clients that do not respond to the notification of the transaction.…

Professional Liability Advocate

Deloitte’s $500 Million Sentence

By Peter J. Larkin & Rebecca R. Gelozin

September 16, 2016

We have assisted many accounting firms in the creation or revision of their client engagement letters. They very often question the need to include certain provisions intended to limit their liability to their clients and sometimes ask whether the provision is even enforceable. Whether the provision will be enforced is uncertain due to the very limited case law addressing liability-limiting provisions in accountants’ client engagement letters, and there could be variations in enforcement from state…

Professional Liability Advocate

CPAs Need to Sharpen Awareness of IT Threats

By Peter J. Larkin

May 4, 2015

In the most recent “North America Top Technology Initiatives Survey Results,” CPAs responding to the poll ranked “securing the IT environment” as the number-one priority, followed by “managing and retaining data,” “ensuring privacy,” “managing IT risks and compliance,” and “preventing and responding to computer fraud.” The top five poll results all relate to securing, managing or protecting the information entrusted to CPAs. The poll results are largely consistent with prior years and not…

Professional Liability Advocate

Don’t “Dabble” in Employee Benefit Plan Auditing

By Peter J. Larkin

March 27, 2015

For years, U.S. Department of Labor Chief Accountant Ian Dingwall has been advising employee benefit plan administrators to avoid using auditors who “dabble” in employee benefit plans. During this period, the DOL has consistently found that approximately one third of the employee benefit plan audits the agency reviews are deficient, and points to the firms that perform fewer than five of these audits as the most common offenders. Building on this public commentary, the…

Professional Liability Advocate

Revisiting Restrictive Covenants

By Peter J. Larkin

April 10, 2014

Accounting firms often use post-employment restrictive covenants to prevent their clients and employees from being poached by departing partners and employees. As the number of accountants moving between firms has started to pick up again, so too has the number of disputes concerning the enforceability of the restrictive covenants those accountants signed at their former firms.…

Professional Liability Advocate

If a Tree Falls … Who Will be Listening?

By Peter J. Larkin

April 3, 2014

I recently posed the following question to small-firm CPAs: If you become disabled or die tomorrow, what would happen to your accounting practice? If you haven’t planned for this possibility, the answer probably isn’t going to be pretty. A few days later, the New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants published an article in The Trusted Professional imploring small-firm CPAs to take action and implement a practice continuation agreement (PCA) to protect their…

Professional Liability Advocate

Sidestepping The Advertising Trap

By Peter J. Larkin

November 22, 2013

In a recent Wilson Elser Client Alert, “A Trap for the Unwary Advertiser ,” Tom Manisero (Partner-White Plains) discusses a practice that can trip up accountants looking to use their current client list as a starting point for their advertising. While your clients undoubtedly can be fertile ground for expanding your practice, you have to be careful not to violate the Treasury Regulations implemented in connection with IRC § 7216, which protects confidential information…

Professional Liability Advocate

Accounting Fraud Never Sleeps—and the SEC Plans to Prove It.

By Peter J. Larkin

October 25, 2013

Earlier this year, the New York Times reported that the SEC was “bringin’ sexy back” to accounting investigations. That’s probably not good news for those auditing public companies. In 2002, “accounting scandals” became a household phrase as the accounting frauds at Enron, WorldCom and others came to light. Although accounting fraud was nothing new, the public and political reactions to these scandals led to the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the formation of…

Peter J. Larkin

Accountants M&A Alert: New AICPA Guidance on Transfer of Client Files

Deloitte’s $500 Million Sentence

CPAs Need to Sharpen Awareness of IT Threats

Don’t “Dabble” in Employee Benefit Plan Auditing

Revisiting Restrictive Covenants

If a Tree Falls … Who Will be Listening?

Sidestepping The Advertising Trap

Accounting Fraud Never Sleeps—and the SEC Plans to Prove It.

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