This article was originally printed in the January/February 2012 issue of the magazine of the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs, On Balance.

Lawyers are constantly on the lookout for financial experts who can help them win cases. Virtually all civil suits involve issues about money, and a certified public accountant is one of the best resources for sorting out the financial details.

As a CPA, you don’t have to focus on litigation work to become an expert witness. As a professional doing income taxes, financial statement audits, benefit plan consulting, or other advisory work, you possess valuable expertise that could help expand your practice. The key is to set yourself up as an expert on a narrow range of issues and market yourself to the right potential clients.

Are you seeking a female forensic accountant or fraud investigator to be an expert witness in your case? Do you think a woman on the team might be helpful if your case goes to a jury trial? Are you looking for diversity that may appeal to a wide range of jurors? Does it really matter?

I don’t care much about the gender of my clients, and most of my clients don’t seem to care much about my gender. Almost all of my work comes from attorneys (on behalf of their individual or corporate clients), and most often I am dealing with someone at the partner level. Because of this, my clients are overwhelmingly male.

The path from Marquette undergraduate to forensic accounting expert was an unexpected one for Tracy Coenen. But she hadn’t counted on a chance semester of Financial Criminal Investigations and the impression left by her professor, a former IRS special agent.

“It was somewhat accidental and somewhat not,” Coenen said. Her professor explained the intricacies of financial investigations and how these cases could be cracked using techniques of accounting, as opposed to street maneuvers. Intrigued by the class content, Coenen, then majoring in criminology and law studies, used all her elective credits to take business and accounting classes to carve out a niche for her newfound interest. “That’s what got me interested in it, and then I had to figure out how to get into the private sector.”

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post about my experience with Twitter, encouraging lawyers, accountants, and auditors to abandon the tool unless they had seen any specific business-related return on their time investment. Of course, for those who enjoy twitter as a social outlet, they should certainly tweet to their heart’s content. But for those attorneys and accountants who are interested in the business benefits of Twitter, I am encouraging them to stop wasting their time on Twitter if they haven’t seen benefits. (And unfortunately, the vast majority have not seen tangible business-building benefits, yet are holding on because they don’t know when to hang on just a little longer for the big payoff, or when to cut their losses and stop wasting time.)

The bottom line for me is that Twitter is ineffective in developing business for lawyer and auditor types. I understand Twitter well, and I know how to use it the “right way.” It’s just that even when doing so, there have been no measurable results for me. As I’ve stated previously, I wasn’t all that picky about what type of result needed to occur…. any sort of additional business from an existing or new customer, or a connection that led to some business…. any old result would do. And there were no results.

Yes, I’m quitting Twitter. After 2.5 years, 2,154 followers, and 2,917 tweets, I have officially called it quits on Twitter. And I believe other professional services firms – - accountants, auditors, lawyers, engineers, etc. – - should do the same. Stop wasting your time on Twitter and get back to generating new business and goodwill with your existing clients.

What do I know about Twitter or web marketing?
Why should anyone listen to me? I’d like to think I’ve got a pretty good handle on using the web to generate new business and create professional relationships, at least in the professional services space. Accountants, auditors, and lawyers should listen to me because I know how to get results.

Here’s the proof: I’ve been a solo practitioner in a niche practice (fraud investigation and forensic accounting) for over 11 years. Today, my website is ranked third in traffic for forensic accounting firms. The two ahead of me (and several of the firms behind me) have hundreds of employees around the world. 

With the challenging economy we’ve had over the last couple of years, people are constantly asking me how business is going. The assumption is that people and companies don’t have money for litigation, and so my business is probably suffering. Fortunately, that is not the case, as my business has been growing tremendously over the last few years.

It is true that businesses and individuals don’t have as much money for litigation, but they still have money and they still have to litigate some things to keep their businesses and lives intact.  However, there is a legitimate concern about the legal fees and expert fees that are going to be incurred, and so consumers are choosing wisely.

Last weekend I took part in an amazing celebration at my alma mater, Marquette University. I was honored with the Entrepreneurial Award from the College of Business Administration. I am grateful to my family for making that education possible for me, and was humbled to have wonderful friends and colleagues join me for the awards ceremony. This is the video that was made to commemorate the weekend.

A couple of weeks ago I had an email exchange that exemplified why solo practitioners like myself should not “partner” with larger firms on projects. There is no “partnering” about it. The bottom line is their bottom line, and their bottom line is enhanced by two key moves:

1. Profiting from your work
2. Stealing your intellectual property so they don’t have to “partner” with you next time

Here’s the first email I got from the consulting firm:

Brad Hicks at Fox6 did a bang-up job of showing the world the job of a forensic accountant: Millions of dollars are missing from a Milwaukee company, and an employee is charged with stealing a staggering sum of money. How deep the fraud goes is something investigators are still deciphering. FOX6 gives you a look at how they do it, and how they think one employee made off with millions.

I am being presented with one of the Marquette University Alumni National Awards in April. I am honored!

College of Business Administration and Graduate School of Management
Entrepreneurial Award
Tracy L. Coenen, Arts ’93, Grad ’96

Tracy Coenen may not know where the bodies are buried, but she knows how to follow the numbers. When it comes to forensic accounting, she wrote the book on the subject. In fact, she wrote three: Expert Fraud Investigation: A Step-by-Step Guide, Essentials of Corporate Fraud, and The CPA’s Handbook of Fraud and Commercial Crime Prevention.