Andersen Global adds outposts in Jordan and Rwanda

In Jordan, an existing firm known as Zalloum & Laswi is to be known going forward as Andersen Tax & Legal, Andersen Global has announced, while in Rwanda, MRB Attorneys will become an Andersen "collaboration firm". This means it will retain its name and independence for now and will work indefinitely as an Andersen affiliate, although many such collaboration firms have eventually become a part of the Andersen Global group. 

(Zalloum & Laswi, in fact, was one such firm, having signed a collaboration agreement with Andersen Global last fall.)

Zalloum & Laswi was established in 1993 in Jordan by its managing partner, Azzam Zalloum. The firm has around 20 employees who provide legal services for mid-to-large Jordanian corporations and foreign corporations in banking and finance, civil law, contracts, foreign investment, intellectual property rights, international trade and cross-border issues, corporate and commercial law, criminal law, litigation and dispute resolution, mergers and acquisitions and real estate matters, according to a statement announcing the news of the firm's joining Andersen Global. 

In a separate statement, Andersen Global said the addition of the Kigali, Rwanda-based MRB Attorneys to its operations meant the company now has a presence in 16 African countries.

MRB Attorneys was founded in 2013 by the firm’s five partners, whom Andersen Global said were extensively experienced in private and public legal consultancy issues.

Andersen Global was established in 2013 by Andersen Tax LLC, and traces its origins to a business that emerged from the collapse of Arthur Andersen in 2002. It now has a presence around the world that is comprised of more than 149 outposts staffed by more than 4,500 employees, counting its member entities as well as collaborating firms.

Unlike the original Arthur Andersen, Andersen Global doesn't do auditing work, the specialist accountancy area which led to Arthur Andersen’s downfall, and which has been a source of difficulty for some other major accountancy firms in recent years. Also, it is part of a growing trend among accounting specialists outside of the U.S. and U.K. to offer legal services alongside its tax offerings, although this was something that the original Arthur Andersen also did. 

As noted in a profile of the company that ran here in June,  the business has been driven since 2002 by its San Francisco-based chairman, Mark Vorsatz, pictured left,  who had been an Arthur Andersen partner from 1987 until the firm’s demise. Vorsatz, who is also chief executive of Andersen Global’s Andersen LLC division (formerly known as Andersen Tax), had headed up a group of some 23 ex-Andersen executives who sought to keep a portion of the original Arthur Andersen business going after its collapse, initially as a subsidiary of HSBC USA Inc. (known as Wealth & Tax Advisory Services). 

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