Larkspur & Vance
Articles, guides and notes from the team.
Tax advisory
An old memo is not authority, but it is history. Rohan Mehta on why the firm archives replaced guidance in place, how a superseded memo describes itself, and what that does for the client who saw the old figure.
Rohan Mehta · Tax Partner · · 4 min read
How we work
Review is not a second opinion on the conclusion. It is a check that the conclusion can be reproduced from the sources. Harriet Larkspur on what gets approved, what gets preserved, and how a correction is written.
Harriet Larkspur · Managing Partner · · 4 min read
Learning
The hardest sentence in advisory work is the polite one that does not promise. June Okafor on the firm's practice scenarios for scope, terms and staffing requests, and the five things a good answer always contains.
June Okafor · Practice Manager · · 4 min read
Learning
Prove what you know, then learn what you need. Harriet Larkspur on the associate certification track: a pre-assessment, three short modules, a timed review, and the one thing the badge does not mean.
Harriet Larkspur · Managing Partner · · 4 min read
Practice operations
A time entry is evidence, not a sales pitch. Rohan Mehta on factual narratives, why the signed letter comes before the invoice, and how a private research note and a shared methods note are billed differently.
Rohan Mehta · Tax Partner · · 4 min read
Behind the work
The client needed one figure by two o'clock. The draft had a figure. Elena Marsh on why she checked the source instead of trusting the draft, what she found, and what she wrote down so her reviewer could follow.
Elena Marsh · Associate (Tax & Advisory) · · 4 min read
Practice operations
Intake, conflicts clearance, signature, lane. June Okafor on the four steps between a prospective client's first call and the first hour of billable work, and why an associate can collect information but cannot promise acceptance.
June Okafor · Practice Manager · · 4 min read
Practice operations
A file return request is one of the most ordinary things a firm handles and one of the easiest to get wrong. June Okafor walks through the firm's policy: what is returned, what is retained, and who decides the hard cases.
June Okafor · Practice Manager · · 4 min read
How we work
Halden Foods is matter 2041. Orrin Marine is matter 2057. Their working papers are never in the same place, even though some of the same people work on both. Harriet Larkspur on what a matter lane is and what it protects.
Harriet Larkspur · Managing Partner · · 4 min read
Practice operations
A statement of work gives roles, allocations and a duration. June Okafor on why those are three separate fields, what a capacity check actually confirms, and why an allocation is never permission to expand the work.
June Okafor · Practice Manager · · 4 min read
Tax advisory
A well-written number from last year is still last year's number. Rohan Mehta on the firm's rule for checking the period before the figure, with the fictional equipment expensing memos the firm uses to train it.
Rohan Mehta · Tax Partner · · 4 min read
How we work
Before anyone at Larkspur & Vance opens a client file, there is a signed engagement letter. Here is what it records, why a request on a call is not a change of scope, and what goes wrong when a firm skips the letter.
Harriet Larkspur · Managing Partner · · 4 min read