Vastly affected by SOX is internal management, but the outside auditors are in partnership with management regarding the same. A universal key ingredient that makes an external audit successful is that the outside auditor should be independent.

Research the two elements of what being independent means and discuss whether the external auditors are truly independent. What continued risk do the external auditors experience that threatens their independence? How could these threats to independence be fixed? What experience do you have from your places of employment with these auditors? Were you ever interviewed during the process of their audit? Share that experience with the class: What did they ask? What was it like? How did they explain what they are doing? What were some of the pertinent fraud-related questions?