About Cathy Allen

Cathy Allen, CPA of Audit Conduct is a leading expert in the field of accounting professional ethics who has educated thousands of CPAs and other professionals about their ethical responsibilities, including auditor independence. Previously, as staff of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Cathy led the development of the Plain English Guide to Independence. As a consultant, she helped lead the project to restructure the Code of Professional Conduct. She was a Managing Director in PwC’s U.S. Independence Office.

Cathy serves on the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Board of Directors, chairs its Regulatory Response Committee, and is a member of the AICPA Professional Ethics Executive Committee. She previously served as chair of the NASBA Ethics Committee and was a member of the New York State Board for Public Accountancy.

Clients/Former Clients

Some of the clients Audit Conduct serves (or has served) include: 

  • American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) 
  • Arkansas State Board of Public Accountancy
  • BerryDunn, LLC
  • BDO, LLP (formerly BDO Seidman, LLP) 
  • Bowers & Company, CPAs, PLLC
  • Briggs & Veselka Co.
  • Cherry, Bekaert & Holland, LLC (now Cherry Bekaert, LLC)
  • CliftonLarsonAllen, LLC  
  • CPAacademy.org
  • KPMG, LLP
  • Lurie, LLP
  • Marcum, LLP
  • MarksNelson, LLC
  • McGladrey & Pullen, LLP (now RSM US, LLP)
  • MSL CPAs &Advisors
  • National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) 
  • New York State Society of CPAs - Foundation for Accounting Education (FAE)
  • Plante Moran, PLLC
  • PricewaterhouseCoopers - Canada
  • Rea & Associates, Inc.
  • Rehmann Robson, LLC
  • Richey May & Co., LLP

What Clients Say

Very timely information - looking forward to future sessions. It was interesting to see the different directions that the US is going compared to international standard setting organizations. I am in interested in ongoing information concerning tax services and revisions to the statements re standards of tax practice..
Jay B. Retired Partner
Big 4 Firm
Cathy is a great presenter!
Mitchell Bean
CEO – Bean Global Advisors, LLC
Cathy was articulate and made the rules easy to follow.
Chris Hatcher
Baldwin CPAs
Outstanding presentation highlighting significant items. Very knowledgeable presenter, smooth delivery.
Elliott Hendler
Partner Emeritus - Friedman
Very informative and knowledgeable!
Larry Shaprio
Retired Partner - BDO
Great presentation - it touched on a few items that we have recently worked through, so it was nice to have Cathy walk through similar situations.
Christina Moser
Plante Moran
We’ve been using Cathy Allen and Audit Conduct’s guidance for several years. We’ve appreciated the resource along with her attentiveness, availability and responsiveness, and her knowledge and quality work.
John P. Dale, CPA Assurance Partner
Richey May  
Cathy has an excellent grasp of the independence rules from a technical and practical perspective. As the independence rules evolve in this rapidly changing environment, Cathy has been a great resource to help our firm navigate unique and complex situations.
Adam Collyer | CPA Partner
MarksNelson LLC
Our experience with Cathy Allen’s training has been very positive – she makes the subject matter interesting and touches on topics in a way that helps us think about our own actual situations we encounter from time to time. Cathy’s knowledge of the applicable ethics requirements is encyclopedic, and her advice is both prudent and practical.
Tracy Harding, CPA Partner
BerryDunn
Our regional Firm has engaged Cathy Allen for several years now to annually provide Professional Ethics Training to our associates domiciled across three states having State-specific CPE ethics requirements. Having ongoing access to Audit Conduct has allowed us to readily coordinate the differing jurisdictional needs in a fairly seamless way that minimizes our internal efforts to ensure that we truly have a One-Firm approach to ethics training while maximizing Quality Delivery with a high degree of confidence that are staff are kept abreast of the continually evolving changes in ethics standards. We also call on Cathy to consult with us or review our preliminary conclusions when encountering new, difficult or novel independence-related challenges. She is always professional, responsive, insightful and is great to work with. We follow and appreciate the webinars, blogs, and periodic summaries of ethics changes and news on Audit Conduct’s convenient website!
Michael A. Fleming, CPA Principal
Rehmann
Knowledgeable, thorough, accurate.
Howard Wilensky, CAP, CFE, CGMA
Partner, Lurie, LLP
We’ve worked with Cathy twice over the years. She is competent and professional. I look forward to working with her in the future.
Larry Shapiro
National Independence Director-BDO Seidman, LLP
Cathy has worked on various ethics-related projects for the AICPA Professional Ethics Division. She is diligent, meets all deadlines and produces quality work products. I would recommend Cathy for all aspects of ethics related matters.
Lisa A. Snyder, CPA
Director-Professional Ethics Division, AICPA
I had the opportunity to work with Cathy on some technical projects including the “modernization” of the AICPA independence rules back in 2001. I gained an immediate appreciation for her knowledge of the independence rules. Currently our firms uses Cathy as our outside independence consultant. Cathy has been very responsive to our inquiries which is greatly appreciated as often these are very time sensitive. She is a valuable resource for consulting on AICPA, DOL and SEC/PCAOB independence topics. We appreciate her perspective as someone who is outside of our firm.
Chris Piché, Managing Principal
CliftonLarsonAllen, LLC