New Accounting Pronouncements (Policies)

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Policy Text Block [Abstract]

Comprehensive Income

In June 2011, the FASB issued ASU 2011-05, “Comprehensive Income (Topic 220): Presentation of Comprehensive Income,” which amends current comprehensive income guidance. This accounting update eliminates the option to present the components of other comprehensive income as part of the statement of shareholders’ equity. Instead, the Company must report comprehensive income in either a single continuous statement of comprehensive income which contains two sections, net income and other comprehensive income, or in two separate but consecutive statements. The Company adopted this pronouncement in the first quarter of 2012. However, ASU 2011-12, “Deferral of the Effective Date for Amendments to the Presentation of Reclassifications of Items Out of Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income in Accounting Standards Update No. 2011-05,” has deferred the specific requirement within ASU 2011-05 to present on the face of the financial statements items that are reclassified from accumulated other comprehensive income to net income separately with their respective components of net income and other comprehensive income. ASU 2011-12 would still require companies to report reclassifications out of accumulated other comprehensive income consistent with the presentation requirements in effect before ASU 2011-05. The Company does not expect the guidance in ASU 2011-12 to impact its Consolidated Financial Statements, as it only requires a change in the format of presentation.

Presentation of Financial Statements

As a result of these actions, the operating results of AA, D&I, Utilities and Japan are reported as “discontinued operations.” All other operations of the business are considered “continuing operations.” Amounts previously reported have been reclassified to conform to this presentation in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 205, “Presentation of Financial Statements,” to allow for meaningful comparison of continuing operations. The Consolidated Balance Sheets as of September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011 aggregate amounts associated with the discontinued operations as described above. Summarized operating results of discontinued operations are presented in the following table (amounts in thousands):

Business Combinations

During the first nine months of 2012, the Company completed two acquisitions within the Legal Consulting segment; Ascertus Ltd., a London-based source of software solutions and professional services for corporate legal departments and law firms, and AdamsGrayson, a managed review and legal staffing firm based in Washington, D.C. The aggregate purchase price of the two acquisitions totaled $32.0 million. In accordance with FASB ASC Topic 805, “Business Combinations”, we recorded $8.6 million of intangible assets and $19.3 million of goodwill related to these two acquisitions.

Derivatives and Hedging

FASB ASC Topic 815, “Derivatives and Hedging,” requires companies to recognize all derivative instruments as either assets or liabilities at fair value on the balance sheet. In accordance with ASC Topic 815, we have designated these derivative instruments as cash flow hedges. As such, changes in the fair value of the derivative instruments are recorded as a component of other comprehensive income (“OCI”) to the extent of effectiveness and reclassified into interest expense upon settlement. The ineffective portion of the change in fair value of the derivative instruments is recognized in interest expense. As of September 30, 2012, it was anticipated that $0.3 million of the net losses, net of tax, currently recorded in OCI will be reclassified into earnings within the next 12 months. Our interest rate swap agreements were effective during the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012.

Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures

Certain of our assets and liabilities are measured at fair value. FASB ASC Topic 820, “Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures,” defines fair value as the price that would be received to sell an asset or the price that would be paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. ASC Topic 820 establishes a fair value hierarchy for inputs used in measuring fair value and requires companies to maximize the use of observable inputs and minimize the use of unobservable inputs. The fair value hierarchy consists of three levels based on the objectivity of the inputs as follows:

Contingencies

On December 9, 2009, plaintiff, Associates Against Outlier Fraud, filed a first amended qui tam complaint against Huron Consulting Group Inc., and others under the federal and New York state False Claims Act (“FCA”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The federal and state FCA authorize private individuals (known as “relators”) to sue on behalf of the government (known as “qui tam” actions) alleging that false or fraudulent claims were knowingly submitted to the government. Once a qui tam action is filed, the government may elect to intervene in the action. If the government declines to intervene, the relator may proceed with the action. Under the federal and state FCA, the government may recover treble damages and civil penalties (civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation under the federal FCA and $12,000 per violation under the state FCA). On January 6, 2010, the United States declined to intervene in the lawsuit. After the Court granted Huron’s motion to dismiss without prejudice, on September 29, 2010, relator filed a second amended complaint alleging that Huron and others caused St. Vincent Catholic Medical Center to receive more than $30 million in inflated outlier payments under the Medicare and Medicaid programs in violation of the federal and state FCA and is also seeking to recover an unspecified amount of civil penalties. On June 18, 2012, Huron filed a Summary Judgment motion for dismissal of the action in its entirety which is currently pending. We have conducted preliminary settlement discussions with the relator, and as a result we recorded a charge of $1.2 million in the second quarter of 2012, in accordance with FASB ASC Topic 450, “Contingencies.” No trial date has been set. We believe that the claims are without merit and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.

Segment Reporting

Segments are defined by FASB ASC Topic 280, “Segment Reporting,” as components of a company in which separate financial information is available and is evaluated regularly by the chief operating decision maker, or decision-making group, in deciding how to allocate resources and in assessing performance. Our chief operating decision maker manages the business under three operating segments: Health and Education Consulting, Legal Consulting, and Financial Consulting.