Positive Light Dear Mr. Bigbucks:

¶ … Positive Light

Dear Mr. BigBucks:

This firm has always been tremendously appreciative of your business and of your trust throughout its two-decade-long association with the BigBucks family. We know that over more than half of that time, you have repeatedly expressed your appreciation for the considerable talents of Sidney B. Cheatum, the senior partner of Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe, LLP who has handled your family's various estate and trust legal affairs and accounting matters. We are completely confident in the work of Mr. Cheatum and with all of the advice and counsel that he has furnished to your family and to Mr. Cheatum's other clients of this firm.

Recently, however, a routine records update procedure necessitated by our Information Technology department identified a matter that is of serious legal and ethical concern having to do with Mr. Cheatum's professional certifications. While we are absolutely confident in the quality and thoroughness of the work performed by Mr. Cheatum, we have discovered, unfortunately, that Mr. Cheatum never satisfied this state's requirements with respect to obtaining his professional licenses that are prerequisites to the legal practice of law and accounting.

Specifically, Mr. Cheatum obtained his law license in the state of Massachusetts shortly after his graduation from Harvard University School of Law in 1982, but it has been brought to our attention that Mr. Cheatum never sat for the bar examination in this state. Consequently, he has, in effect, been practicing law illegally by virtue of being unlicensed in this state since he joined this firm in 1983. Similarly, while Mr. Cheatum also achieved academic distinction as a student of Accounting and Finance, he never registered or sat for the Certified Public Accountant examination that is a prerequisite to practice accounting legally in every state. Naturally, we have had no choice but to dismiss Mr. Cheatum from his position with this firm immediately upon his confirmation of this information and we are currently cooperating with various law enforcement authorities that are investigating this matter.

While we are confident in the work performed by Mr. Cheatum during his tenure with our firm, we must express our most sincere apology for failing to confirm his professional licensure at the time that he first joined this firm as an associate. We have identified the loophole in our verification process and have determined that this failure was attributable to the fact that, unlike most of our newly graduated attorneys, Mr. Cheatum had already successfully passed the bar exam at the time that he was hired as a summer intern while he was still pursuing his degree in Accounting and Finance. Because he furnished a valid law license at that time, his credentials were not subject to the same review as our junior associates who sit for the bar exam only after joining the firm. Subsequently, it was precisely the stellar quality of Mr. Cheatum's work and his apparent dedication to his clients' interests that accounted for his eventual promotion to senior partner. Unfortunately, the same reputation that he established for the high quality of his work also helped obscure his inexplicable choice not to obtain the proper credentials to work as an attorney or as a CPA in this state.