Big Four Accounting Wants to Be Like AJM&A
Share this post
AJM&A, Ltd. Offers a Model That KPMG is Hoping to Recreate
You know you are doing something right when the likes of KPMG and other Big 4 accounting firms are copying your model. For nearly 30 years, Anthony J. Madonia & Associates, Ltd. has been providing legal and tax services to businesses and individuals. Now the non-lawyer types are trying to get in on the action.
KPMG is realizing our model of providing both tax and legal services is a win-win for clients. The concept is pretty simple. KPMG already offers tax and audit services, so they can also offer legal work to clients. As KPMG Law, the firm plans to offer a wide-range of legal work that goes together with its financial services, such as M&A law and contract reviews. KPMG already offers legal services in 80 countries
You may wonder why other accounting firms haven’t offered this already. That is because nearly every state in the nation holds that non-lawyers are not allowed to own a law firm. KPMG is taking advantage of an Arizona program to open KPMG Law. In 2021, Arizona created a program to expand access to legal services, in large part to address a dearth of lawyers available to help with issues such as family law or immigration.
KPMG’s Vision Through an Arizona Program
KPMG is poised to break through a longtime barrier and become the first Big Four accounting firm to practice law in the U.S., leveraging this novel Arizona program that allows nonlawyers to own law firms. KPMG says its Arizona-licensed lawyers could perform legal work for clients around the country. They see this as an opportunity to streamline and expand the work it does for clients, while also allowing them to use artificial-intelligence tools to perform work that would otherwise be outsourced to a traditional law firm.
Stop the presses right there, this is not a model of any business style AJM&A, Ltd. provides. The casual use of artificial-intelligence tools is not a guiding principle nor is it a future project of our firm. That being said, KPMG seems to be blazing its own trail, not mimicking AJM&A, Ltd. after all.
The idea of non-lawyers owning firms has been hotly debated for decades. Critics say lawyers have ethical obligations to their clients, and a nonlawyer owner could give priority to profit instead.
Our clients know that when working with Anthony J. Madonia & Associates, Ltd. they receive both personalized and professional service for their legal and tax needs. Our model will stay uniquely our while KPMG can blaze their own trail hopefully with less AI use and more ethical obligations.