Analysis and Interpretation of Financial Statements for Lawyers


Date: November 25 & 26, 2014
Location: Toronto
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Highlights

Examine key components of financial statement in order to provide a foundation needed to understand and interpret financial statements encountered in practice


Explore the practical use of financial statements in a legal context


Get insight into how to obtain critical information from financial statements concerning a company’s solvency, liquidity and overall financial health


Look at methods and ratios for assessing profitability



Explore key accounting issues that every practicing lawyer needs to understand



Uncover techniques that will support an evaluation of the key areas of corporate performance


Learn how to spot questionable areas within financial statements and identify red flags in the course of conducting your legal practice


See how to interpret complex transactions & risk management activities and how they are disclosed in financial statements


Faculty

FACULTY
COURSE LEADERS
Brian Ludmer, Ludmer Law
Brian Ludmer is Principal at Ludmer Law. His experience includes M&As, corporate commercial, securities law, internal control, compliance, certification and corporate governance matters.
Lynn Correia, Kroll Canada
Lynn Correia is Senior Director at Kroll Canada. She has more than 10 years of experience in forensic and investigative accounting across a wide range of assignments.
CO-LECTURERS
Jessica Allen, Kroll Canada
Jessica Allen is Director at Kroll Canada. She specializes in the practice of forensic and investigative accounting. She has led or assisted in a range of forensic accounting assignments.
Bruce S. Bando, Grant Thornton LLP
Bruce Bando is Principal at Grant Thornton LLP. He has extensive experience in dealing with distressed entities focused on business viability reviews, financial and operational restructurings, corporate recovery and related advisory services.
Jeffrey C. Carhart, Miller Thomson LLP
Jeffrey Carhart is a Senior Partner at Miller Thomson LLP. His practice focuses on insolvency and he is designated as a specialist in bankruptcy and insolvency law by the LSUC.
Lincoln Greenidge, Enirgi Group Corporation
Lincoln Greenidge is Vice President, Finance and Controller of Enirgi Group Corporation. He spent over 4 years as Corporate Controller of Hudbay Minerals. He is a Chartered accountant with over 23 years of finance experience.
Philip Maguire, Glenidan Consultancy Ltd.
Philip Maguire is Principal at Glenidan Consultancy Ltd. He has close to 30 years of business experience in financial reporting and internal audit.
Dave Oswald, Ernst & Young LLP
Dave Oswald is Senior Manager at Ernst & Young LLP. Dave is a Chartered Accountant and Certified Fraud Examiner, who has a wealth of experience in investigating financial and computer fraud. Dave has interrogated large amounts of data in tracking fraudulent transactions. Dave has helped clients investigate fraud in Canada, USA, UK, Europe and Africa
Urvashi B. Passi, Collins Barrow Toronto
Urvashi is a member of the Litigation Accounting and Valuation Services group at Collins Barrow Toronto LLP, specializing in economic loss and damages quantification in personal injury and business interruption. She is also an occasional accounting Instructor at the University of Toronto
Paul Rhodes, Crowe Soberman LLP
Paul Rhodes is a Partner at Crowe Soberman LLP in the firm’s audit and advisory group. He has considerable experience in financial reporting and has a practice focused on servicing a broad range of entities, both public and private.
Melanie Russell, Kalex Valuations Inc.
Melanie Russell is the founder of Kalex Valuations Inc. Throughout her professional career she has been involved in many assignments for a variety of public and private companies of various sizes and across many industries.
Joy Shuchat, Grant Thornton LLP
Joy Shuchat is Principal, Real Estate at Grant Thornton LLP.
Victor Tsanev, Scotiabank
Victor Tsanev is Senior Manager Accounting Policy and Procedures at Scotiabank, dealing primarily with financial instruments and hedge accounting. Prior to that he spent 10 years at KPMG's audit practice in Europe & Canada auditing financial institutions.
Zoe Wong, MNP LLP
Zoe Wong is a Manager at MNP LLP. She works extensively on assurance engagements within the manufacturing and distribution industry and private equity sector.

Program

COURSE PROGRAM
Key Components of Financial Statements
Lawyers often must be able grasp technical financial principles in the course of their practice. This session will examine the key components of financial statement in order to provide a foundation needed to understand and interpret financial statements encountered in practice.

Nature and use of financial statements in the legal context

Different types of financial statements and their uses

Components of the financial statements: interrelationship between statements

How to assess a company’s financial position from its financial statement

Practical Use of Financial Statements in a Legal Context
With financial statements containing critical information regarding a business’ financial position and organizational structure, it is little wonder that they are an invaluable source of information when legal issues arise. This session will explore the practical use of financial statements in a legal context.

Most common legal issues arising from reporting

Understanding cash flow issues

Practical use of multiples and ratios in legal context

Financial analytical skills needed by lawyers

Working with financial experts for litigation purposes

Analysis Of Solvency, Liquidity & The Financial Position
This session will provide insight into how to obtain critical information from financial statements concerning a company’s solvency, liquidity and overall financial health.

Tools and techniques for understanding of a company’s financial condition

Identifying the company’s ability to pay its bills in a timely manner

Estimating the extent to which the company could meet a sudden demand for cash

Key solvency ratios

Analysis of the Cash Flow Statement: cash flow vs. income

Analysis of Company Performance & Profitability
This session will look at methods and ratios for assessing profitability, keeping in mind the difference between accounting profit and economic profit.

Consistency of profitability measurements

Use of Income Statement to determine a company’s short-term and long-term profitability

Gross profit margin vs. operating profit

Use of the return to equity ratio

Key Accounting Issues When Analyzing Financial Statements
This session will explore key accounting issues that every practicing lawyer needs to understand.

Evolution of financial statements

Basic accounting concepts and principles

Overview of accounting standards from GAAP to IFRS

Financial ratios & key performance indicators: underlying assumptions

Basic principles of valuing a company and the key terms applied in this exercise

Use of Key Ratios in Analysis
With a better understanding of financial reporting concepts and financial statements, there are analytical tools that can be applied to assess corporate performance, and how well it is being managed.

Financial ratios most often utilized: pros and cons

Key performance indicators, their criteria and how they are used

Calculating key financial ratios

Using financial ratios to assess liquidity, debt leveraging and profitability

Effectively Identifying Imbedded Red Flags in Financial Statements
This session will examine how to spot questionable areas within financial statements and identify red flags in the course of conducting your legal practice.

Understanding financial statements and their limitations

Common misstatements

Identifying discrepancies and inconsistencies

Business Valuation Principles Concepts, & Techniques
Valuation and pricing are important aspects of nearly every business transaction, and the need for valuing a business asset regularly arises in the course of legal work.

Valuation process: understanding entity and equity value

Valuation methods & techniques

Comparable analysis: market multiples

Analyzing and interpreting complex financial instruments
This discussion details how to interpret certain complex transactions and risk management activities and how they are presented and disclosed in the financial statements.

Synthetic financial instruments: legal vs. accounting approach

Netting and offsetting of financial instruments

Some innovative financial instruments in the context of the Basel III capital framework

Reviewing Notes To Financial Statements
The notes to financial statements are important and provide information beyond what is shown in financial numbers. As such, they are often essential to clarify or further explain the items in the financial statements. This session will explore how to use the financial statement notes to understand and assess financial statements.

Key information that can be obtained from the notes

Process for reviewing notes

Using notes to identify policies, accounting practices or transactions of interest

Identifying Off-Balance Sheet Financing
This session will look at the issues surrounding the use of off-balance sheet financing and its impact on financial ratios and the required treatment of these arrangements under GAAP and IFRS.

Types of off-balance sheet financing

Off-balance sheet accounting practices

How off-balance sheet financing affects financial statements and ratios

Multimedia Presentations

MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATION
Understanding capital markets
Stephen Lewis
Ernst & Young Orenda Corporate Finance Inc.
Financial statement analysis & interpretation – Interpreting a company’s financial signals
Taryn Abate
MNP LLP
Valuation and pricing: Principles & techniques
Tom Strezos
Deloitte & Touche LLP
International Fnancial Reporting Standards (IFRS) conversion: Legal implications
Marc Cotie
Ricoh Canada Inc.
Role of corporate counsel in risk management
Yonni Fushman
Aecon Group Inc.
Corporate tax fundamentals
Salvador M. Borraccia
Baker & McKenzie LLP
Management decision-making & strategies
Sue Gaudi
The Globe and Mail
Corporate counsel’s role in business operations
Robert P. Ellis
Celestica Inc.
Mastering the annual report
Darren S. Kozol
Central 1 Credit Union
Bridging the GAAP: Understanding financial statements
Todd Miller
Wolrige Mahon LLP
Developing strategic, forward-looking income statements and cash flow reports
Philip Maguire
Glenidan Consultancy Ltd.
Due diligence in corporate transactions
Lesley Bissett-Baldwin
IBIS Corporation.
Role of corporate counsel in M&A transactions
W. Ian Palm
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Business valuation overview
Michael R. Carnegie
Taylor Leibow LLP
Practical application of the market approach to fair value
Marnie Silver
SF Valuations Inc.
Measuring fair value of intangible assets
Steven Rayson
SDR Valuations Inc.
Valuation of goodwill
Richard M. Wise
MNP LLP
Practical application of the income approach to fair value
Parag Gandhi
Sleeman Breweries Ltd.
Forecasting models: Checking for reasonableness
Melanie Russell
Kalex Valuations Inc.
Free cash flow analysis
Gordon Krofchick
Krofchick Valuation Partners
Advanced valuation in M&A’s and LBO's
Glenn M. Bowman
Capital Canada Limited
Fair value measurement & financial reporting
Andrew Harington
Duff & Phelps Canada Ltd.
Internal controls over financial reporting
Kathleen Anderson
Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions
Shareholder activism: Motivations, tools and current issues
Steven McKoen
Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
The role of counsel in ensuring and promoting compliance
Jonathan S. Drance
Stikeman Elliott LLP

Participants

Collins Barrow Toronto

Crowe Soberman LLP

Enirgi Group Corporation

Ernst & Young LLP

Glenidan Consultancy Ltd.

Grant Thornton LLP

Kalex Valuations Inc.

Kroll Canada

Ludmer Law

Miller Thomson LLP

Grant Thornton Limited

MNP LLP

Scotiabank


Who should attend

Corporate lawyers practising in: Corporate and Commercial Law, M&As, Corporate Finance Law, Securities Law, Litigation, Tax Law, Bankruptcy Law, Corporate Counsel and Corporate Secretaries

Price

Price list:-
  • Course: $1975
  • Webcast only : $1575
  • Webcast and Proceedings : $1874
  • Course and Proceedings : $2274
  • Proceedings Only: $799
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Additional Information

REGISTRATION:
To reserve your place, call Federated Press toll-free at 1-800-363-0722. In Toronto, call (416) 665-6868 or fax to (416) 665-7733. Then mail your payment along with the registration form. Places are limited. Your reservation will be confirmed before the event.
LOCATION:
Courtyard by Marriott Downtown Toronto, 475 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M4Y 1X7, (800) 847-5075
CONDITIONS:
Registration covers attendance for one person, the supplementary course material as described in this document, lunch, morning coffee and refreshments during breaks are provided for registered duration. The proceedings of the event will be captured on audio or video. Multimedia proceedings with all slides and handouts can be purchased separately on a CD-ROM which will also include the event material.
This event is being webcast. A camera will capture the person making the presentation. A camera may also capture the registration desk. The public webcast only includes the presentation. By registering, you agree to waive any recourse against Federated Press as a consequence of the webcast of your presence at the event. Please enquire with onsite hosts if you wish to ensure that your seat is outside the scope of the webcast.
Workshops are not covered in webcast.
TIME:
Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. The morning sessions start promptly at 9:00.
CANCELLATION:
Please note that non-attendance at the event does not entitle the registrant to a refund. In the event that a registrant becomes unable to attend following the deadline for cancellation, a substitute attendee may be delegated. Please notify Federated Press of any changes as soon as possible. Federated Press assumes no liability for changes in program content or speakers. A full refund of the attendance fee will be provided upon cancellation in writing received 13 days prior to event date. No refunds will be issued after this date. Please note that a 15% service charge will be held in case of a cancellation.
DISCOUNT:
Federated Press has special team discounts. Groups of 3 or more from the same organization receive 15%. For larger groups please call Sandra Frattolillo at 1-800-363-0722, ext. 223 to get more information.
PAYMENT:
Payment must be received seven days prior to the event date.