The private bar plays an instrumental role in The Legal Aid Society’s Community Development Project, which provides business legal services for low-income clients, with attorneys from New York’s leading law firms providing pro bono assistance on 75 % of the matters. Until recently, however, the Community Development Project lacked the financial and accounting expertise to advise community based nonprofits and low-income micro entrepreneurs on sound accounting practices. PricewaterhouseCoopers has made a commitment to fill this void and ensure clients operate with appropriate internal financial controls and transparency.
Tomas Meriam, a partner with Goodwin Procter, identified our clients’ need for these financial services and was instrumental in the creation of The Legal Aid Society and PwC relationship . “Through my work on the Community Development Project’s Advisory Board, it became clear that the low-income business and not-for-profit clients of the CDP would benefit from a financial accounting component in educational and client servicing functions,” said Mr. Meriam. Under his, and his fellow partner Joanne Gray’s auspices, a meeting was arranged between Dalit Stern, a PwC partner and a new Director at The Legal Aid Society, and her colleague Mark Paver, a PwC director, and the CDP staff. The PwC team quickly became enthusiastic about using their forensic accounting expertise to serve the Society’s clients. Ms. Stern said, “My team and I are very excited about the opportunity to apply our accounting background, financial knowledge and our passion to a truly noble cause, especially when the population of needy New Yorkers need it more then ever.”
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