Andersen was the only employer Jeff Robinson ever knew.
He joined the public accounting firm 28 years ago out of Loyola University in Chicago as an eager auditor. He rose through the ranks to become partner in 1987. Thoughts of a fancy retirement party were in the back of his mind.
It’s a career progression that many who came before Robinson at Andersen followed with much professional and financial success. But those plans were shattered for him and thousands of others with Andersen’s sudden fall.
While he has been able to pick up his professional career at rival Grant Thornton LLP without much interruption, picking up the emotional pieces has not been as easy.
“It’s hard to put into words when you never thought you would be with another firm,” said Robinson, 49.
The transition has been eased by the move to a smaller company with less of a bureaucracy. Grant Thornton has about 350 employees and partners in Chicago, compared with 5,000 Andersen once employed here. The firm acquired about 60 partners and 500 employees from Andersen.
“I don’t know if my Andersen counterparts at larger firms have had it as easy as I have,” Robinson said. “I think it’s been more difficult to get everyone aligned.”
Robinson jumped to Grant Thornton because the firm specializes in auditing firms with up to $1 billion in revenue, the same so-called middle-market firms that he worked with at Andersen. But the move has had unexpected professional benefits.
At Andersen, he didn’t have as much time to spend with clients because he was overseeing 12 to 15 people and also was intent on generating new business.
Grant Thornton prefers that one partner be responsible for seven or eight people, which “enables me to get more deeply involved in clients,” Robinson said.
