Click here for Part I

A leading provider of accounting and business advisory services

Lori Reiner is the Partner-in-Charge of EisnerAmper in Philadelphia. Founded in 1965, EisnerAmper has grown into one of the largest accounting firms in the US, with offices in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and the Cayman Islands. Today, the firm provides audit, advisory, bankruptcy, employee benefit, tax, and financial services clients in a variety of industries ranging from construction to real estate to sports and entertainment. Lori is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA), and has earned honors from the Philadelphia community for her accounting expertise and leadership, including a "Best 50 Women in Business" award, a Small Business Administration "Woman in Business Advocate" award, and a Young Leadership Award from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

Lori Reiner spoke with citybizlist publisher Edwin Warfield for this interview.

EDWIN WARFIELD: What kind of services does EisnerAmper provide to its clients?

LORI REINER: Of course we audit; financial statements - in some cases it’s review or compilation - a lot of tax work, obviously because everyone is required to file a tax return if you’re a business or you’re an individual; however, there are so many other services that our accounting firm provides. For example, some of things that our clients are currently taking advantage of: lots of mid market companies do deals - M&A - so they hire us to help them do due diligence, perhaps calculate their quality of earnings of a particular company - a target that they’re looking to acquire. Some companies are looking to recapitalize and they have us sit next to them so that they can negotiate a deal with either private equity or an outside investor, or to ultimately sell the company fully. Other services include specialty tax services. State and local tax is a huge issue for many of our clients, especially in our technology group. Very small companies are very quickly taxable in more than just their home state, and we have these companies that require a lot of consulting to make sure that they’re minimizing their tax and also making sure they minimize their exposure to taxation in other states - both income tax and state and local tax, sales and use tax as well. Other specialty taxes could be international. Again, especially in this age of technology, technology companies are very quickly doing services, performing services, outside the United States.

Other services include things like cybersecurity. We spend a lot of time with our clients. There’s no company that’s too small that isn’t somehow at risk for something related to cyber security and our consultants are very active with our clients in preparing an initial assessment of where their vulnerabilities are and laying out a plan for them to address [those vulnerabilities].

Q. With all these industries and services, what is EisnerAmper’s overall growth strategy?

A. That’s a question that a lot of people ask us. We started out as a very dominant East Coast firm and have quickly grown throughout the United States. Today, we have offices in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania; two offices in Florida; we have two offices in California; we just opened up an office in Boston; and we are actively pursuing a few other locations inside the United States: specifically Chicago, Dallas, expand our footprint in Boston, as well as Washington, DC. You will see that geography has stayed pretty much it - perhaps another office in California, in the LA area - and you will see those geographies continue to deepen and grow, as we grow both organically as well as through merger in those areas.

Q. What about your offices outside of the US?

A. A few years ago we started EisnerAmper Global, of which there are currently three offices. One is in the Cayman Islands. Another one is in Ireland - we’ve about 100 people in our EisnerAmper Ireland office. And then we have two offices in India: one in Bangalore as well as in Mumbai. Those offices are growing. They are very much in response to our clients that are looking to do business in those areas, and our desire to really have it be housed under the EisnerAmper family of clients - that we can work very closely with our colleagues in those offices in order to properly service them.

Connect with Lori on LinkedIn

ABOUT NEWMARK GRUBB KNIGHT FRANK

Newmark Grubb Knight Frank (NGKF) is one of the world's leading commercial real estate advisory firms. Together with London-based partner Knight Frank and independently-owned offices, NGKF’s 12,800 professionals operate from more than 370 offices in established and emerging property markets on six continents.

With roots dating back to 1929, NGKF’s strong foundation makes it one of the most trusted names in commercial real estate. NGKF’s full-service platform comprises BGC’s real estate services segment, offering commercial real estate tenants, landlords, investors and developers a wide range of services including leasing; capital markets services, including investment sales, debt placement, appraisal, and valuation services; commercial mortgage brokerage services; as well as corporate advisory services, consulting, project and development management, and property and corporate facilities management services. For further information, visit www.ngkf.com.

NGKF is a part of BGC Partners, Inc., a leading global brokerage company servicing the financial and real estate markets. BGC’s common stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the ticker symbol (NASDAQ: BGCP). BGC also has an outstanding bond issuance of Senior Notes due June 15, 2042, which trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol (NYSE: BGCA). BGC Partners is led by Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Howard W. Lutnick. For more information, please visit www.bgcpartners.com.

Edwin Warfield, CEO of citybizlist, conducts the CEO Interviews.

If you're interested in reaching CEOs, please contact edwin.warfield@citybuzz.co

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