Accounting for Attorneys: Understanding basic concepts and financial statements

Kathy Johnson | J.S. Held LLC

Kathy Johnson is a forensic accountant and expert witness, with over 25 years of accounting experience. She specializes in family law, business valuations and cash flow analysis, civil and criminal litigation support, estate and trust accounting analysis, fraud investigations, and economic damages. She serves as an expert witness in both civil and criminal cases and provides litigation support for partnership dispute resolutions and other accounting & economic issues.

Kathy is also an adjunct university professor teaching both graduate and undergraduate courses in forensic and financial accounting, auditing, and ethics. She also teaches certified professional education (CPE) courses to other CPAs for topics that include family law, business valuations, and asset tracing. Industry organization participation include Current Council Member and Past Chair for CalCPA, Current Board Trustee for CalCPA Education Foundation, Council Member of AICPA and member of the sub committee for Relations for the Judiciary.

Kathy’s work with community organizations includes serving as CEO for the Inland Empire Community Foundation, Vice President for the Alliance of Black Women Accountants, Treasurer for the Redlands Police Community Foundation, and Board Member for the Community Action Partnership of San Bernardino County.

Jill Kennedy | FTI Consulting

Jill Kennedy is a Managing Director at FTI Consulting and is based in Los Angeles. Ms. Kennedy has over 15 years of experience serving on a variety of financial and accounting litigation matters. She has assisted clients in complex and sensitive issues arising from commercial litigation, securities litigation, international arbitration, intellectual property, investigations, and accounting related matters.

In connection with these matters, Ms. Kennedy has calculated complex damage models, developed discount rate and cash flow analyses, directed analysis of large volumes of data, drafted affirmative and rebuttal expert reports, advised Counsel in witness depositions, and prepared expert witnesses for deposition and trial testimony. She has experience across a variety of industries including technology, financial services, banking, telecommunications, media, automotive finance, transportation, consumer products, chemicals, and the non-profit sector.

Ms. Kennedy has been designated as an expert witness for both plaintiffs and defendants in Federal and State of California courts. Ms. Kennedy holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, a Master of Accounting from the University of Southern California and a B.S. cum laude in Business Administration from Pepperdine University. She is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in the state of California, a Chartered Financial Analyst, and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

Session l – Understanding Basic Accounting Concepts | 12:00pm – 1:40pm

• Recognize the information conveyed in the four basic financial statements and their role in the courtroom | 12:00pm – 12:30pm
• Role of generally accepted accounting principles and the international financial reporting standards |12:30pm – 1:00pm

Break | 1:00pm – 1:10pm

• Fundamentals of accounting for income taxes | 1:10pm – 1:25pm
• Assess fraud risk and detect red flags | 1:25pm – 1:40pm

Session II – Analyzing Financial Statements | 1:40pm – 2:50pm

• Review of revenue, expenses, net income, assets, liabilities, and equity (accrual basis) | 1:40pm -1:55pm
• Understanding of how the three financial statements relate to each other | 1:55pm – 2:10pm

Break | 2:10pm -2:20pm

• How financial statements can be used to assess the financial wellbeing of a company | 2:20pm – 2:35pm
• How financial statements are used in valuations | 2:35pm – 2:50pm