A lot of the decisions firms are making about DEI right now are driven by fear of legal exposure. Employment attorney Aislinn Sroczynski thinks that fear is mostly misplaced, and in some cases, it is actually creating the risk firms are trying to avoid.

Aislinn joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to lay out exactly what the law says, what has changed, and what has not. Core federal anti-discrimination laws remain fully in effect. Most inclusive practices that were lawful before are still lawful now. The firms that are dismantling programs wholesale out of political anxiety are not playing it safe. They are making a different and potentially more costly mistake.

The conversation is grounded, practical, and exactly what firm leaders need before making any decisions about their DEI strategy in the current environment.

What you'll take away:

• Why the legal landscape for DEI is more stable than the political noise suggests
• What firms can confidently continue: inclusive hiring, bias training, open ERGs, supplier diversity
• Where the actual legal lines are and how to make sure your programs stay on the right side of them
• Why reactive rollbacks create new legal and reputational exposure rather than reducing it
• How documentation and regular program review protect your firm regardless of which way the political winds shift

Resources & Links

Connect with Aislinn Sroczynski: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aislinn-sroczynski-637179b0/

Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld: https://www.rccblaw.com

Participate in the Accounting MOVE Project: https://accountingmoveproject.com/

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

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Sarah Elliott started her career as a CPA. Then she noticed something: the profession was excellent at developing technical skills and almost completely unprepared to develop leaders. So she built Intend2Lead to close that gap.

Sarah joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to walk through the Conscious Leader model, a framework built on mindset, skill set, and habits that moves accounting leaders away from control and toward something more powerful: human-centered leadership grounded in empathy, courage, and genuine curiosity.

The conversation takes a sharp turn into new Intend2Lead research on recently promoted partners, and the findings are uncomfortable. New partners are frequently surprised by the economics of partnership, receive limited feedback after the promotion, and often feel more isolated than they expected. The fix, Sarah argues, starts long before the promotion and requires sustained investment well after it.

What you'll take away:

• What separates leaders who build cultures of trust from those who build cultures of fear
• How the mindset, skill set, and habits framework develops leaders at every level
• Why new partner transitions often go sideways and what firms can do to prevent it
• How belonging and psychological safety translate directly into performance and retention
• Why the leaders best equipped for what's coming are the ones who stay relentlessly curious

Resources & Links

Connect with Sarah Elliott on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahelliottcpaacc/

Learn more about Intend2Lead: https://intend2lead.com

Participate in the Accounting MOVE Project: https://accountingmoveproject.com/

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode

Dan Hood has spent decades watching the accounting profession change. He has never seen everything change at once quite like this.

The editor-in-chief of Accounting Today joins host Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk to make sense of the collision: AI and accelerating technology, the shift from compliance to advisory, private equity consolidation, demographic shifts, ESG, and a rising generation that evaluates employers very differently than their predecessors did. None of these forces is operating in isolation, and firms that treat them that way are already falling behind.

The conversation covers a lot of ground, but the throughline is consistent: the firms that will thrive are the ones building culture with intention, expanding their talent pipelines beyond the usual suspects, and telling a better, more honest story about what a career in accounting actually looks like.

What you'll take away:

• Why it is the convergence of change, not any single trend, that demands attention right now
• How intentional culture building becomes a real competitive differentiator in the talent market
• Why DEI is fundamentally about access and retention, and how that reframe reduces resistance
• What the generational squeeze between Boomers and younger professionals means for firm structure
• Why firms recruiting from the same schools year after year are leaving entire talent pools untapped
• What Gen Z is actually watching for when they evaluate whether your firm means what it says

Resources & Links

Connect with Dan Hood on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-hood-3494ab49/

Accounting Today: https://www.accountingtoday.com

Participate in the MOVE Project: https://accountingmoveproject.com/

About MOVE Like This MOVE Like This is the podcast for accounting firm leaders building more equitable, competitive, and people-first firms. New episodes drop bi-weekly during survey season and monthly in the off-season. Hosted by Bonnie Buol Ruszczyk.

🔔 Subscribe so you never miss an episode