Huron's Mixed Quarterly Earnings

In the big picture, the firm grew its revenue by 2.1 percent, when comparing third quarter 2009 to the same quarter last year. Overall, clients continue to pay ever increasing fees—up to $284/hour in the last three months, up from $250/hour during the same period of last year. However, the aggregated number washes away the significant struggles occurring within the Accounting and Financial Consulting business.

That business unit includes its dispute and forensic accounting practice, which was likely to be most affected by the firm's own accounting fraud. Between 2006 and the first quarter of 2009, Huron overstated its earning by about 50 percent. In the most recent quarter, the Accounting and Financial Consulting business unit's revenue fell by almost 24 percent and operating income fell almost 70 percent.