Our Courses are designed to train lawyers at every level of expertise - from junior associates to senior partners - in what they often want or need to know about their clients' financial statements.

Financial Statement Basics: Provides the rudiments for junior corporate associates, and in some cases for more senior lawyers in other fields (e.g. litigation, bankruptcy, real estate).	Intended for the junior or senior lawyer who has little or no experience with financial documents. It provides a practical working knowledge of the fundamentals of the income statement, balance sheet, cash flow statement, how they work and what to look for. This is our entry level course. All of the other courses assume that the lawyer is comfortable with the financial statement basics, either because they took this course or otherwise. For example, do you know the relationship between the income statement and the balance sheet? Could you look at an income statement and confidently identify the operating profit? If not, then this is probably the best course for you.
Lawyers' Corporate Finance: Gives lawyers from mid-level associates to seasoned senior partners a practical and reliable working knowledge of corporate finance as executives speak it. 480 minutes.	You will learn how to dig into and behind the numbers to get a realistic picture of a company’s performance and future prospects. The course explains techniques of analysis and the significance of key financial variables, such as high versus low margins (gross, operating and net), the significance of EBIT and EBITDA, high versus low asset turnover, the implications of operating leverage and financial leverage, how to distinguish between cash cows and cash absorbers, the extent and implications of diversification, return on assets, return on capital, and return on equity. The course examines companies in numerous industries, small as well as larger companies, profitable and unprofitable companies, levered and unlevered companies, fast and slow growth companies, diversified and undiversified companies, and service as well as manufacturing companies. Would you like to understand clearly the significance of being a fast growth company or a cash cow, of using leverage, or of being diversified? Would you like a better working knowledge of how financial profiles vary among different industries? Do you wish you could read a company’s financials and, based on that reading, have a sophisticated conversation with the CEO, CFO, and/or major capital sources about the company’s performance, what it is likely to do next and perhaps what it must do next? If so, this course will get you there.
Accounting Gamesmanship: Explains and illustrates over a dozen ways companies might manage their earnings without violating GAAP.	Lawyers are not accountants. Yet it is useful to know how management might, in good faith or otherwise, have made decisions which influence the performance of the company as reported in the financials. The instructor uses well known companies as examples to explain approximately sixteen such techniques used to manage the reported financial results. Would you like to know just where the numbers are likely to be softest? When you are handling an acquisition, a securities offering, or litigation involving financial matters, would you like to know where best to probe the numbers? If so, this is the course that would suit you best.
Management Discussion and Analysis: What the lawyer needs to know about accounting and finance in reviewing MD&A's.	This course sharpens the due diligence skills used to review compliance with evolving MD&A rules on behalf of the lawyer’s SEC registrant clients or at the request of clients conducting due diligence. The focus is on determining whether an MD&A addresses the pertinent financial reporting issues effectively and identifying techniques to assess substantive compliance. The course examines the application of SEC rules and its landmark enforcement actions and the linkage between a company’s financial reporting results and MD&A consequences. If you would like to be a lot more savvy about linking financial information with narrative disclosures, especially in the MD&A context, then this is the best course for you.
Merger and Acquisition Accounting: Explains the critical financial dimensions of the complex accounting matters that arise in virtually every business combination. Explains and illustrates the rules and consequences of the new FASB standards and relevant SEC releases in this (post-ABP 16) purchase only era, as well as other key matters such as treatment of goodwill, fair value, deferred income taxes, in-process R&D, push-down accounting and recap accounting.	This course is for lawyers who want an increased understanding of the complex technical accounting matters that impact the financial reporting consequences inherent in virtually every business combination. In addition to explaining the accounting rules and their application, the course addresses goodwill, the step-up to fair value impact, in-process R&D, push-down accounting, recap accounting, the exit-and-integration cost issue, deferred tax liability consequences, and the one-line consolidation alternative to full consolidation. In working on mergers or acquisitions, do you hear talk about the accounting rules and wish you knew more about them? If so, then this course, in a sophisticated but user-friendly way, will give you the practical knowledge you need in handling those transactions.
Creation of Corporate Value: A follow-up to Lawyers' Corporate Finance focusing on methods of measuring and creating value, including key issues inherent in projections, cost of capital, discounted rates, discounted cash flow, use of comparables, economic value added, and sensitivity analysis.
Financial Covenants: What the lawyer needs to know about accounting in negotiating or drafting financial covenants and definitions.
Course Length:  All courses are normally 240 minutes (4 hours) in length, except where noted. Custom Courses:  Custom courses are available - please call. Hardship Policy:    The Dickie Group maintains a discretionary scholarship fund for those individuals who demonstrate that our fees present a financial hardship.