News

LBLCO Named Best Accounting Firm for Women

Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP Named Best Accounting Firm for Women
by the American Society of Women Accountants
and American Woman's Society of Certified Public Accountants
Benchmarking Study Ranks Firms on Criteria Focused on
Removing Barriers for Women in the Workplace

May 16, 2011 – The future of accounting depends on millennial women. The 2011 Best Accounting Firms are the profession's innovators in developing the newest generation of female talent, positioning their leadership pipelines for a bumper crop of women partners.

Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP is one of the Best.

Today, Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP was named one of the “Best Accounting Firms for Women,” by the American Society of Women Accountants (ASWA) and the American Woman’s Society of Certified Public Accountants (AWSCPA).

The Best Firms were selected from the 25 firms that participated in the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project, sponsored by the ASWA and AWSCPA, and made possible with the support of Rothstein Kass & Co. and Moss Adams, LLP.

Lurie Besikof Lapidus & Company, LLP, Minneapolis, MN
Managing partner Beth Kieffer Leonard sets the tone: Helping women succeed in business is good business. The firm keeps a high profile in local entrepreneurship organizations for women, earning acclaim and fresh marketing contacts for its support for new business owners. Internally, the firm emphasizes training for managers to ensure that pay equity is not just a catchphrase. Flexwork is no barrier to advancement--Leonard was part-time eighteen years ago. With 25% of its partners women, the firm is leading the industry.

What makes an accounting firm Best for Women? Top-notch programs and proof that those programs actually retain and advance women to partnership.

Firms were ranked on the range, depth and success of programs and workplace culture proven to remove barriers to women's success, especially at midlevel and above. The MOVE methodology pivots on four factors – money, opportunity, vital supports for work/life and entrepreneurship-- known to advance women in the workplace. "The Best Accounting Firms for Women show that innovation and excellence are found at firms of all sizes," said Joanne Cleaver, president of research partner Wilson-Taylor Associates.

About the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project

The Best Firms were among the 25 that participated in the 2011 Accounting MOVE Project. Through the project and its sponsoring associations, the American Society of Women Accountants and the American Woman’s Society of Certified Public Accountants, the profession can consistently measure the status of women and collaborate on proven and promising practices that advance and retain women.

Key findings:

• Millennials expect women to be business leaders, and see view flexwork and fair pay as family economic issues.
• Women are pulling in new clients, even as they accelerate in the partnership pipeline, through innovative business development programs.
• Pay equity must be validated by audits and reviews to validate women’s trust in firm leadership.
• Firms that publicly communicate the results of their diversity programs -- not just their activities -- rapidly gain authority with clients, employees and potential recruits.

The Accounting MOVE Project research partner is Wilson-Taylor Associates, Inc., which has been measuring and supporting the advancement of women since 1998.

Registration for the 2012 cycle of the Accounting MOVE Project opens in October 2011. Interested firms can gain more details about the project methodology through webinars offered by Wilson-Taylor this fall.

Please visit www.wilson-taylorassoc.com for additional information about Wilson-Taylor projects, reports and tools for advancing women.

MEDIA CONTACTS

Andy Schwarz
Director of Public Relations
American Society Of Women Accountants
703-556-7160
aschwarz@aswa.org

Kimberly A. Fantaci
Executive Director
American Woman’s Society of CPA's
800.AWSCPA1
M: 937-313-1337
info@awscpa.org

Joanne Cleaver
President
Wilson-Taylor Associates
414.395.6876
M: 414.232.3181
jycleaver@wilsontaylorassoc.com