Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould & Birney, LLP has nationally recognized expertise in defending professional liability actions against accountants and accounting firms.  Although most of the actions this firm has litigated were venued in California, the firm has been involved in litigating actions against accounting firms from Alabama to Alaska and Hawaii to Texas, appearing in both State and Federal Courts.

The firm has defended accounting firms in actions arising from audit services, tax services and litigation support services.  The underlying actions range from securities fraud class actions to common law negligence and fraud actions to unfair competition actions.  In addition, the firm represents accountants and accounting firms in administrative proceedings before the Securities and Exchange Commission and the California Board of Accountancy. 

Among the published decisions where this firm has appeared as counsel of record for the accountants or the accounting firm are Aizuss v. Commonwealth Equity Trust, 847 F.Supp. 1482 (E.D. Cal. 1993), Eckert Cold Storage Inc. v. Behl, 943 F.Supp. 1230 (E.D. Cal. 1996), and McBride v. California Board of Accountancy, 130 Cal.App.4th 518 (2005).

The firm also appeared as counsel for the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”) in Bily v. Arthur Young & Co., 3 Cal.4th 370 (1992) in which the California Supreme Court held that an auditor owes no duty of care to persons other than the auditor’s client.  More recently, the firm appeared as counsel for the AICPA in Grafton Partners L.P., et al. v. The Superior Court of Alameda County (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP), 36 Cal. 4th 944 (2005).