Clarkson Gordon (also known as Clarkson Gordon & Co) was a national Canadian accounting and receivership business founded in Toronto, Upper Canada in 1864 by Thomas Clarkson and operated for 125 years until the partnership elected to merge with the EY network of firms in 1989 following the merger between Ernst & Whinney and Arthur Young & Co.
The firm was considered a finishing school for Canadian business elite and was known as the pedigreed accounting firm, whose reputation for creating a "Clarkson Man" was that of creating "a gentleman who had been taught from birth if he were lucky, or during his apprenticeship with the firm if he were less so, how things worked in the Canadian elite. Clarkson Men masked their aggressive, innovative energies behind an acceptably circumspect façade of unrelenting hard work, iron-willed self-control, and unerring good manners". Those matters of being a gentleman; what the Globe described as the difference between an accountant and a "Clarkson Man" differed in its description over the years, the Globes 1965 description was eventually expanded to include: a quiet self-confidence, a willingness to work weekends and holidays and above all, to be willing to lose—or perhaps more aptly leave—a client if the financial data underpinning an audit was misleading.
Structure and Influence
Throughout most of the firm's history, the organisation was structured across three separate business lines: accounting and auditing services provided by Clarkson Gordon (and previous iterations including Clarkson & Cross, Clarkson Gordon & Dilworth, etc); management consultancy services provided by Woods Gordon & Co; trustee services, assignee, receivership, liquidation and bankruptcy services through ERC Clarkson & Sons (eventually the Clarkson Company).
The group additionally operated through partnerships with other practices including Clarkson, Cross & Helliwell in Vancouver (Helliwell being one of ERC Clarkson's cousins).
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 Bankruptcy Act 1919, and the creation of the Banking Act of 1923. The firm's training, particularly the writings of Geoffrey Teignmouth Clarkson and ERC, 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.
Through the 20th century, 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 in 1989, although EY still retains the copyright.
History
Clarkson Gordon was founded by the Clarkson family in 1864 by Thomas Clarkson (Upper Canada) as Thomas Clarkson & Sons when Thomas was appointed an Official Assignee for the Province of Ontario. Thomas Clarkson was a prominent financier in Toronto, having raised the Exchange building, served as the Board of Trade president and was on the board of directors for several banks including the Bank of Toronto (which he helped establish). As early as 1857, Thomas had served in a proto-auditor role on behalf of the shareholders of the Bank of Toronto known as a "Scrutineer".
In 1868, Thomas Clarkson was President of the Chamber of Commerce and lacked experienced help. His senior employee, Mr. Thomas Munro was dedicated full-time to the work. By 1872 work was so busy that Thomas recalled his son, Edward Roper Curzon Clarkson (ERC) to Toronto from Montreal and at 18, ERC joined the business. A year later, Thomas suffered a paralytic stroke, ERC was not yet 21 and barred from being appointed a receiver by the province of Upper Canada, ERC formed a partnership with Mr Munro which they called Clarkson & Munro, operating out of the Exchange Buildings at 34 Wellington Street. This partnership lasted until 1877 when Clarkson received his appointment as an official assignee and joined Turner, Clarkson & Co.