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22 Hartford Business Journal | March 22, 2021 | HartfordBusiness.com FOCUS: Accounting By Matt Pilon mpilon@hartfordbusiness.com W hen Whittlesey CEO Drew Andrews first started working at the Hartford-based accounting and audit firm back in 1984, there were dozens of small homegrown firms competing in the market. Today, following years of consolidation capped off in December by CliftonLarsonAllen's (CLA) absorption of West Hartford- based blumshapiro — which is nearly four times larger than Whittlesey by annual revenue — Andrews said he's still in a bit of disbelief that his firm is now the largest that remains. "I'm just surprised that there's no one left," said Andrews, whose firm posted $26 million in revenue last year, making it the 158th largest firm in the U.S. and (now) the largest Connecticut-based firm by far, according to recent rankings from Inside Public Accounting and Accounting Today. Blumshapiro was 58th on the national list, which means there are now no top 100 firms based in Connecticut. The Greater Hartford accounting sector is a battleground where increasingly large firms compete for private-sector, government and nonprofit clients. The entry of CLA, the eighth largest U.S. accounting firm, brings another giant into a market where most of the top 10 firms are already well represented, including the Hartford region's "Big Four" market leader PwC, as well as No. 5 firm RSM, which will officially relocate its 160 employees in New Haven and Farmington this May to downtown Hartford's Goodwin Square office tower. "Anyone in that area is considered a competitor but wherever competition is, there is opportunity," Competition heats up in Greater Hartford's accounting sector after mega deal When CliftonLarsonAllen announced it would be acquiring blumshapiro, Whittlesey CEO Drew Andrews suddenly found himself leading the largest Connecticut-based accounting firm. Largest U.S. accounting firms Rank Firm 2020 Revenues 1 Deloitte $21.9B 2 PwC $17.4B 3 EY $15B 4 KPMG LLP $9.9B 5 RSM US LLP $2.7B 6 Grant Thornton LLP $1.9B 7 BDO USA LLP $1.8B 8 CLA $1.1B 9 Crowe LLP $983.2M 10 CBIZ & MHM $811M Source: Inside Public Accounting PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED