Jo Rickard

If you end up in litigation you don't want to be confronted with divergent views,' says Rickard.
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One thing to avoid, says Rickard, is writing memos trying to justify yourself when a claim comes in. 'When you are notified of a claim, don't write a long memo saying what you have done.Don't put anything in writing.It can be used against you.
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Jo Rickard of law firm Shearman & Stirling agrees. ,You are setting up exactly the ambit of the job you are taking on and the bits you are clearly not going to take.You are making it clear that in the time available the accountancy firm is being asked to look at A, B, and C and can't be held responsible for anything outside that,' he says.

Throughout the 90s, whenever there was a corporate collapse, there was a claim against the auditors' says Jo Rickard, a litigation expert at law firm Shearman & Stirling.

The Equitable Life case, amongst others, has changed all that.What Ernst & Young achieved, in facing Equitable down and waiting for its claims to be exposed as flimsy in court, has encouraged insurers and auditors to stand their ground, she says.