LA MAP COMMITTEE EVENT: OCTOBER 27th 2021 “CONVERSATIONS ABOUT LEGAL AREAS WE NEED TO ADDRESS FOR OUR FIRMS’ FUTURE” (Now, More Than Ever)
Join our Los Angeles MAP Committee’s October 2021 event for a look into challenges and natural evolutionary situations. As robust Accounting Firms today and in the future, we need conversations with our legal advisers. During COVID, the profession has dedicated a great deal of time and energy helping our clients survive and thrive. In many cases, we haven’t had (or taken) the time to address our own needs. Much has changed and with those changes comes the need to reevaluate legal structures of the firm and all its stakeholders.
Our format for this event is a panel consisting of 2 attorneys and our host, LA MAP Chair, Mark H. Fowler. The first panelist is Peter Fontaine, a nationally-known attorney working exclusively with the Public Accounting community—he is the Managing Partner of NewGate Law in Chicago. The second panelist is Attorney and CPA (inactive) Jonathan Karp of Thompson Coburn LLP in Los Angeles. Jon also focuses on the needs of Public Accounting firms. You may know Jon from his many years as the LA MAP Committee Chair. Mark H. Fowler, CPA (Inactive), CMC is a specialist in working with CPAs in Succession Planning and M&A. Each speaker’s resumes is below.
Based on a conversational approach between Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Karp, this will be a participatory group discussion in which we will explore together these and other topics:
Ownership Agreements
- Bringing new owners in
- Properly transitioning and managing other ownership situations
- Proper management control and structured voting processes
- New breed of “Non-Equity Partner” or “Income Partners”
- Developing proper compensation for the different ownership duties and responsibilities
Mergers & Acquisitions
- What’s new & what’s not?
- Driving forces
- Expanded scope providing IT Services & other non-traditional services
- In walks private equity – again
- Alternative Practice Structure
Succession Planning—Different Forms
- Inhouse development and growth for the long haul
- Developing and shaping firm for merger or sale
- Shrinking market for and maturing of solos
Case for Practice Continuation Agreements
- Protecting value in event of disability or death
- Basic anatomical features
Most Frequently Asked Questions and Challenges
Questions & Answers
Looking forward to your participation!
Please note that we will be dark in November. Please mark your calendar for December 15th, when we will have David Cieslak back for his Inspector Gadget technology update.
NOTE: online registration for all Cal CPA events automatically closes at 11:59 pm on the night before the event.
To register on the day of the event, please contact:
- Melissa Pineda Pineda@calcpa.org
- Shelly Medina Medina@calcpa.org
Zoom link for the event will be emailed 1-2 days prior to our meeting. If you have not received the link, on the morning of the presentation, please email Allan Fisher allan@pfssearch.com
Panelist and Host Profiles:
R. Peter Fontaine is the managing partner of NewGate Law, which provides legal and business advisory services exclusively to the accounting industry. Prior to launching NewGate, Peter was general counsel of RSM US and American Express Tax & Business Services and assistant general counsel of Arthur Andersen. Peter’s areas of expertise include mergers and acquisitions, partnership/shareholder agreements, employee and partner matters, risk management, regulatory compliance.
Jonathan Karp is a partner in the Los Angeles office of the national law firm of Thompson Coburn LLP. Jon is licensed as both an attorney and a CPA (inactive) by the State of California. Jon has been recognized by his peers as a Super Lawyer and one of the Best Lawyers in Southern California. Jon’s clients are mid-sized closely-held businesses and their owners, professionals, high net worth individuals. Jon assists those clients in their general legal matters and succession planning for businesses, including accounting, legal and medical practices. He has counselled accounting firms in connection with their Partnership/Shareholder/Buy Sell Agreements, drafting and negotiating those agreements, assisting firms on the admission of new partners and the separation of existing partners from the firms for various reasons. He has represented multiple accounting firms in their acquisition of other accounting practices, as well as their sale to, or merger with, other accounting firms. Jon has given presentations to local chapters of the California Society of Certified Public Accountants and the California CPA Education Foundation, as well as at national conferences of the AICPA, on various topics of interest to accountants, including succession planning for CPA firms.
Mark H. Fowler is President of Stowe Management Corporation, a business re-engineering firm, and CEO of Revolutionary Conversations, LLC, a training & development company, both in Santa Monica, specializes in corporate design and business enhancement for growing and challenged businesses. Working with CPAs and their clients for more than 30 years, he has been involved with more than 200 CPA firms to address needs from marketing and growth to succession planning and merger/acquisition. Mr. Fowler has taught for the Foundation, having had 17 courses with them, and is a former Foundation trustee. He has been on the steering committee, often being the chair, of more than 45 conferences. He is currently on the State MAP/MCS Committee and is the LA Chapter MAP Chair. Mr. Fowler has authored articles on topics including succession planning for CPA firms and other businesses; his recent articles for California CPA magazine include “Succession’s Speed”, “What are You Doing for Your Future?”, “Client Success.”
