The Business Behind the Practice: Accounting, KPIs and Tax Strategies for Attorneys

Emil Abedian, CPA, Founding Partner and CEO | Counsel CPAs, LLP

Emil Abedian is a Certified Public Accountant and the founding partner and CEO of Counsel CPAs, LLP, a CPA firm that serves law firms exclusively across the United States. He has practiced accounting for twenty years, beginning his career in Sweden before relocating to Los Angeles, and has spent that time learning how law firms actually make and lose money. He built his practice around a gap he kept seeing in the industry: clients were losing billable hours, and no one was handing them the metrics to notice.

• Education & Credentials

Abedian earned a Master of Science in Business and Economics, with a concentration in economics, from Uppsala University in Sweden, completing the program in 2006. He is a Certified Public Accountant and leads Counsel CPAs, LLP from the firm’s Glendale office.

• Recognition & Leadership

He serves as a board member and Chief Financial Officer of the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Los Angeles and of the Mentor Foundation (USA). As chief executive of Counsel CPAs, LLP, he leads a team of CPAs, enrolled agents, and law firm accountants organized around the legal industry rather than around general business services.

• Professional Involvement

His professional involvement centers on the law firm niche. Rather than treating legal clients as one vertical among many, he founded a firm dedicated to them, and works with owners on the questions that sit outside the practice of law: what the numbers say, which metrics to watch, and how to act on them. His board and CFO roles with the Swedish American Chamber of Commerce of Greater Los Angeles and the Mentor Foundation (USA) extend that work into the nonprofit and civic side of the same discipline.

• Experience

Twenty years of accounting practice, first in Sweden and then in Los Angeles, sit behind his work with law firm clients. He advises owners, partners, and managing attorneys on the financial and operational side of their firms — recovering billable hours that were quietly leaking away, supplying reporting and metrics owners can act on, and guiding firms through growth decisions with advice rather than after-the-fact bookkeeping.

SESSION 1 – The Business Behind the Practice: Accounting, KPIs and Tax Strategies for Attorneys | 1:00pm – 3:10pm

Most attorneys receive world-class training in the law — and almost none in running the business behind it. This two-hour webinar closes that gap. Designed specifically for law firm owners, partners, and managing attorneys, the program covers the financial disciplines that protect your license and grow your practice: trust accounting and IOLTA compliance done right, the monthly reports and KPIs every firm should track, proactive tax strategies most firms leave on the table and the systems, team, and mindset that separate growth-minded firms from stagnant ones. Attendees will leave with a practical plan for running their firm like the business it is — presented by Emil Abedian, founding partner and CEO of Counsel CPAs, LLP, a CPA firm serving law firms exclusively across the U.S.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm