The Securities and Exchange Commission has settled charges against four public companies for failing to maintain internal control over financial reporting (ICFR) for several annual reporting periods. Two of the charged companies also failed to complete the required evaluation of the effectiveness of ICFR for two consecutive annual reporting periods. The SEC has been  warning companies for not fixing internal control failures. According to the SEC's orders, year after year, the four companies-Grupo Simec, Lifeway Foods, Digital Turbine, and CytoDyn-disclosed material weaknesses in ICFR involving certain high-risk areas of their financial statement presentation. As discussed in the SEC orders, each of the four companies took months, or years, to remediate their material weaknesses after being contacted by the SEC staff. One of the companies is still in the process of remediating its material weaknesses.

As part of its continued efforts to put a series of massive scandals behind it, Wells Fargo recently outlined some changes it has made to how the internal audit function is structured, including adopting a more centralized system of internal audit. The troubled bank also named a new chief audit executive.

Most law partnerships begin with a sense of shared aspirations, enthusiasm and trust. The founding partners and those subsequently added presumably maintain a fiduciary commitment to conduct consistent with the welfare of the other partners, as well as clients. The fact is that this is often not the case.

The recent conclusion of a case involving an Atlanta law firm and its managing partner provides a painful but poignant example of the extent to which trust can be violated.