On August 16, 2011, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (“PCAOB”) issued a Concept Release on Auditor Independence and Audit Firm Rotation (“Concept Release”). The Concept Release, available at http://pcaobus.org/Rules/Rulemaking/Docket037/Release_2011-006.pdf, solicits public comment on steps it could take under its existing authority to enhance auditor independence, objectivity, and professional skepticism, including, most notably, imposing for the first time mandatory audit firm rotation on public companies.
Topic: Audit Committee
Restrictions on Removal of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Members Violate U.S. Constitution’s Separation of Powers Principle; Narrow Holding Excises For-Cause Removal Provision
Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Free Enterprise Fund v. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, No. 08-861. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board ("Board") was created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 to regulate accounting firms that conduct audits of public companies. The five members of the Board are appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), and are removable by the SEC only "for good cause shown" and "in accordance with" certain procedures. This "dual for-cause" removal regime–wherein a Board member is only removable for good cause shown by the SEC, whose Commissioners the President may not remove at-will–was described by the Court as "novel" and "highly unusual."