Clarkson Gordon & Co
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| Company type | Partnership |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services |
| Founded | 1864 (as Clarkson & Munro) |
| Defunct | 1989 (rebranded as EY Canada) |
| Headquarters | , Canada |
Key people | Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada) (Founder) Walter L. Gordon (Name Partner) Geoffrey Teignmouth Clarkson (Managing Partner) Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson (Managing Partner - 1864-1931) |
| Products | Accounting, Receivership, Consulting, Auditing |
Clarkson Gordon (also known as Clarkson Gordon & Co and through the 1930s Clarkson Gordon & Dilworth) was a national Canadian accounting and receivership business founded in Toronto, Upper Canada in 1864. It was one of only a few finishing schoola for Canadian business elite (alongside the seven sister Canadian law firms).
Through most of the firm's history, the organisation was structured across three separate business lines: i) accounting and auditing services provided by Clarkson Gordon (And previously Clarkson & Cross); ii) management consultancy services provided by Gordon & Co; and iii) receivership, liquidation and bankruptcy trusteeship businesses through ERC Clarkson & Sons (eventually the Clarkson Company).
Clarkson Gordon's managing partners are directly attributed for developing key bankruptcy and insolvency reform in Canada, particularly the reforms resulting from the repeal of the insolvency act 1881, the creation of the Banking Act of 1923 and . The firm's training, particularly the writings of Geoffrey Teignmouth Clarkson, have been used as foundations of the insolvency and bankruptcy law of Canada. Several innovations in receivership and the development of receivership rules were the result of legal challenges made by the firm in their liquidator roles.[1]
At its peak, Clarkson Gordon provided auditing to all five of Canada's largest banks. Clarkson Gordon was headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada until 1989 when it merged with Ernst & Young following the merger of Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co, creating the largest accounting firm in the world. At the time of its merger with Ernst & Young, Clarkson Gordon was the second largest firm within the EY Network, and was rebranded as EY Canada.[2]
History
Clarkson Gordon was founded by the Clarkson family in 1864 by Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson (ERC) and his father Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada) as Thomas Clarkson & Sons as ine of the few receivership businesses in Toronto.
In 1872 at the time of Thomas' death, ERC was not yet 21 and could not act as a receiver under the province of Upper Canada. He formed a partnership with one of his father's business partners Thomas Munro.
By the 1880s, ERC became interested in accounting, and along with others in Toronto, was a founding member of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants, serving as the Institute of Accountants of Ontario's first president and widely regarded in his obituaries as the first Canadian chartered accountant,[1] The professionalisation of the accounting class coincided with ERC establishing two parallel practices: a receivership business known as ERC Clarkson & Sons, and an accounting business known as Clarkson & Cross. Cross, a firery Mancunian, frequently butt heads with the Institute of Accountants of Ontario leadership particularly after the Constitutional Bank scandal of 1889 which resulted in Clarkson & Cross investigated the decisions of the company on behalf of shareholders.
ERC, a prominent member and president of the Toronto Board of Trade, an organisation which his father, Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada) helped found, used the venue to promote insolvency reform. [1]
W.H. Cross retired in 1913. By then, the partnership consisted of ERC and his son Geoffrey Teignmouth Clarkson. Colonel H.D.L. Gordon was selected to replace Cross. Gordon demanded his protege, RJ Dilworth, also become a senior partner and the firm was renamed to Clarkson Gordon & Dilworth.
GT Clarkson, who eventually became the managing partner, joined the firm following his qualification as an accountant at 15 in 1893. G.T. was noted for being particularly private but politically savvy. He, like ERC were conservatives and extremely close with the Provincial Conservatives. GT frequently advised conservative governments in department efficiencies and was appojnted to several royal commissions. He was also appointed the auditor of several government businesses or businesses where the major creditor was the government, including, by 1923 no less than 4 defaulted banks: the Ontario Bank, the Sovereign Bank, Farmers’ Bank, and the Monarch Bank and had liquidated dozens of other financing institutions including the Dominion Permanent Loan Company.[3] Later that year he would administer the liquidation of Home Bank. He had also been auditor to the Canadian Bank of Commerce, and a single year in 1901 the Colonial Investment and Loan Company, Bank of Toronto, Dominion Bank, Imperial Bank and the Standard Bank of Canada. Toronto's Hush magazine claimed in the 1930s that GT was known as "Jesus Christ" amongst the Provincial Conservatives in Queen's Park. He was frequently called upon to provide expert evidence at Queen's Park and in Parliament. [4]GT'a opinion was deemed critical when drafting the Banking Act 1923 and no changes to the legislation when in committee were to be made without his approval[5]. He corresponded often with Arthur Meighen when Meighen was both Prime Minister and a Senator on the select committee for banking. Indeed his ties to the government were so strong that he was offered the Minister of Finance position under Arthur Meighen's government following the King-Bing affair at the urging of prominent Toronto Conservative figure I.E. Weldon. GT, like his father, provided his services to non-profit organisations, particularly education. He served on the board of governors for Havergal Collegr, Upper Canada College, and Wycliffe College. [6]
By the 1930s, Colonel Gordon's son, Walter Gordon joined the firm alongside GT's three sons, Robert Curzon, Geoffrey Perry, and Fredrick Curzon. The firm established a "best friend" partnership with Arthur Young & Co, sharing services and servicing each other's clients depending on which side of the border the client was on. The two firms also created a joint venture in Brazil.
In 1989, after the announcement by Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co that the firms would merge, the Clarkson Gordon partnership announced that after 125 years it would change its name in Canada to Ernst & Young Canada.
References
- ^ a b c David Mackenzie, Clarkson Gordon Story: 125 years (1989 Clarkson Gordon) 7
- ^ "Reports Say Arthur Young and Ernst May Merge". The New York Times. May 1989.
- ^ Financial Review, 1923 pages 101, 110, 129
- ^ The Financial Times 14 June 1944, page 12 “Expert Opinion Behind Stand on Bank Reserves: GT Clarkson Says that to Reveal Them would be Unwise and Dangerous”
- ^ The Financial Times 14 June 1944, page 12 “Expert Opinion Behind Stand on Bank Reserves: GT Clarkson Says that to Reveal Them would be Unwise and Dangerous”
- ^ Meighen Papers Series 4 (M.G. 26, I, Volume 140) Reel C3477 file 0355