Audit committees are taking on added responsibilities after Sarbanes-Oxley.

Required
a. Describe the changes in audit committee membership and duties that were mandated by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
b. The audit committee now has the "ownership of the relationship with the public accounting firm."What are the implications (a) to the audit committee, and (b) to the public accounting firm of the new auditor-client relationship with the audit committee?
c. Assume that management and the auditor disagree on the appropriate accounting for a complex transaction. The auditor has conveyed the disagreement to the audit committee along with an assessment that the disagreement is on the economics of the transaction and has nothing to do with earnings management. What is the responsibility of the audit committee? What skills must exist on the audit committee to meet their responsibility?
d. Assume the auditor and audit committee disagree with management's proposed accounting treatment and management acquiesces to the auditor treatment. Is it appropriate to refer to the financial statements as management's financial statements? Explain.