Jim Peterson

Jim Peterson is a US-trained and qualified lawyer, concentrating for over forty-five years on complex multi-national matters involving corporate financial information.

In both law firm and individual practice, he has represented global companies, the international accounting firms and their professional groups in disputes, negotiations, government agency proceedings and standard-setting, as well as advising at senior levels in the underlying strategic debates.

For 19 years he was a senior in-house lawyer and partner in a large accounting firm, working extensively with the profession's policies and risk management strategies.

"Balance Sheet," his financial and accountancy column, appeared bi-weekly in the International Herald Tribune from April 2002 for five-plus years.

Since the winter of 2009 he has been teaching a graduate-level course in Risk Management at business and law schools in Chicago (DePaul, the University of Chicago Law School, the College of Law of the University of Illinois) and Paris (the law school of the University of Cergy-Pontoise).

The first edition of his book, “Count Down: The Past, Present and Uncertain Future of the Big Four Accounting Firms,” was released for the academic and scholarly markets by Emerald Publishing in December 2015 (Vol. 19, Studies in the Development of Accounting Thought, Series editor: Gary Previts, De Windt Professor of Accountancy, Case Western Reserve University). The second edition -- revised, updated and extended, and designed and priced for professional, business and capital markets readers -- was published by Emerald in July 2017.

His second book -- "DOA: Can Big Audit Survive the UK Regulators?" -- was released in May 2019, and is available in paperback and e-reader formats on Amazon.

He has also published articles in accounting and legal journals including the Journal of Accountancy, the CPA Journal, and the American Corporate Counsel Association's journal -- the Docket -- along with occasional book reviews and other commentary.

He is a regular speaker, panelist and commentator before professional groups and trade associations, internationally and in the United States.

He divides his practice and residential time between Paris and Chicago.