Silent Auction; Forensic Accounting

[Baker, John]

        i first saw the term in the late 80s, when an accounting firm (i forget which one, but it wasn't one of what were then the big 8) had ads in the wall st. journal describing itself as a forensic accounting firm.  from the 9/23/85 l.a. times:

        >>Brown, who is president of the San Diego Forensic Consultants
Assn., called forensic consulting "a whole little world." There are
forensic firemen, forensic psychologists and forensic accountants
(for embezzlement cases). Forensic engineers, though, are still a
fairly rare breed, he says.<<

john baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Wilton [mailto:dave at WILTON.NET]
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 3:38 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Silent Auction; Forensic Accounting


> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Dave Wilton
> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 9:02 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: Silent Auction; Forensic Accounting
>
>
> > FORENSIC ACCOUNTING--A popular post-Enron term that I've been
> > seeing recently, but it pre-dates Enron.
>
> The first time I heard this term was on an episode of "Law & Order." I
> believe the episode is "Girlfriends," from the sixth season.
> The episode originally aired 1 May 1996.

Yup, that's the one. The episode in includes a line from a witness
testifying to a grand jury, "I'm a forensic accountant. I perform audits for
the purpose of uncovering business fraud."

I would be shocked if L&O coined the term, but it's at least as old as 1996.