Author, lawyer and Allegheny College trustee Michael R. Young will visit the college to share experiences from his legal career in a talk titled, “What Were They Thinking? How Honest People Go Bad … A Little at a Time,” from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. Thursday, October 17, in Quigley Auditorium.
This event is hosted by the Bruce R. Thompson Center for Business & Economics in partnership with the Law & Policy Program. Lunch will be provided.
Young, who has spent 38 years as a Wall Street attorney investigating corporate wrongdoing, also will visit some economics classes while on campus. His Lunchtime Learning talk will examine how decent, honorable individuals end up breaking the law, often without realizing it.
Young, a 1978 Allegheny graduate, is a litigation partner at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York City where he chairs the firm’s securities litigation practice. He advises and defends boards of directors, audit committees, accounting firms, public companies, and company officers on issues of corporate governance and financial reporting. He was named by Accounting Today as one of the “Top 100 most influential people in accounting.”
He has served as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, as chair of the New York City Bar Association’s Financial Reporting Committee, and as counsel to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Center for Audit Quality.
A prolific author on the subjects of financial reporting, audit committee effectiveness and the role and responsibilities of the independent auditor, his books include “The Financial Reporting Handbook” (Wolters Kluwer 2003), “Accounting Irregularities and Financial Fraud” (Harcourt 2000) and, most recently, “Financial Fraud Prevention and Detection: Governance and Effective Practices” (Wiley 2014).
Young is a speaker and commentator on financial reporting issues, and he has been regularly quoted in such publications as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, USA Today, The Washington Post and The National Law Journal. He has also appeared as an invited guest on Fox Business News, CNBC, MSNBC and CNN.
He is also a graduate of the Duke University School of Law, where he was research and managing editor of the Duke Law Journal.