SOX, as well in contemporaneous changes in stock exchange listing standards, those relationships
were significantly changed. Major changes were made (1) to increase the independence of audit
committees of public companies, (2) to transfer control of the audit firm relationship to audit
committees (from management and the board as a whole), and (3) to give audit committees plenary
authority to hire and pay audit firms and other advisors needed for such committees to conduct their
now-statutorily mandated responsibilities. These changes represented a significant change to basic
corporate law and governance, which traditionally had been determined at the state (not federal)
level, and which traditionally had given the full board of directors authority to delegate whatever
authority over the audit firm relationship as it saw fit (including to the management of a public
company). In addition, SOX mandated audit partner rotation every five years, and banned many
non-audit services that had formed the backbone of the consulting businesses that each of the large
audit firms had developed alongside their traditional audit lines of business.