Christopher Passmore is the partner-in-charge of accounting firm Withum’s Los Angeles operation, which is based in Encino. He earned his MBA from Pepperdine University and currently resides in Agoura Hills. His work focuses on emerging and middle-market companies, with specialties including the tech, blockchain and crypto, manufacturing, logistics, benefits and retail industries. Passmore recently sat down for a Power Lunch at Brent’s Deli in Northridge to discuss the accounting landscape and what challenges are pressuring accounting firms and their clients.
Tell me about Withum’s operation in the Valley and L.A. in general.
Withum is a Top 25 CPA firm that’s been around for 50 years focused primarily on middle market companies. The team in L.A. is based in Encino. We’ve got about 75 people, and I’ve been actually working with that team for 20 years this year, so it’s been quite a while. When I started 20 years ago, we were about 20-to-25 people, so we’ve had some really strong growth over the years. It’s been a great company to be with.
There are obviously the Big Four juggernauts. What advantages do you see in working a tier below that?
I was Big Four myself, and the value-add for the Big Four is your Disneys of the world, your Hewlett Packards, your Dells. But there’s a lot of businesses in the middle market, especially here in Southern California, that don’t fall into that category. You’ve heard the term, ‘Small fish, big pond.’ It’s the same concept. They may be underserved by a firm that size because they’re not as large as those gigantic public companies. That’s the need. We try to help the middle market, where the owners may need a little bit more business advice, a little bit more hands-on advice that they wouldn’t normally get. That’s what I think is a huge value of the second tier, or what I call the Top 25 and we’ve had a lot of success. There are a lot of middle market companies in L.A.
Right – L.A. is, by reputation, a giant middle market city.
Exactly. It’s funny – I moved here thinking all I was going to work with was actors, actresses and musicians, and I find that the majority of my clients now are middle market manufacturers, consumer products, health care, professional services.
Is the bulk of your work concentrated in the Valley region?
It’s all over the county, from the Valley to the Westside. We do have some further up, going towards Santa Barbara, some further south, towards Orange County. But the bulk is the 405-101 corridor, pretty much coming up from Santa Monica through Woodland Hills.
What’s the biggest challenge that accounting is facing now?
The influx of AI is changing everything we do and, trying to be current, there’s what I call the ‘bleeding edge’ and what I call the ‘leading edge.’ We’re trying not to be on the bleeding edge, but we’re also trying not to fall behind our peers. Right now, AI is changing our daily routines, from how we analyze clients, financial data, tax returns, to just project management. That’s been a huge inflection point for us, specifically in 2026 because we’re embracing the technology and figuring out, how do we roll this out to make the lives of our employees better and make the quality of our services strong?
What challenges are your clients facing?
The economic turbulence. Flash back two years to the election: everybody thought we would have a very business friendly administration, and then within a few months, you’ve got the tariffs, and then a year later, you’ve got the turbulence in the Middle East and just politically with everything else going on. Right now, the clients are just trying to navigate all the uncertainty – ‘How much is it going to cost to import my goods from offshore? What is the impact of increased oil costs going to result to my bottom line?’ And also, on top of that, the major tax change, with the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. I think just keeping up with the times and trying to be nimble (is a challenge), because what happens today may be completely different than what happens tomorrow.
What do you like about living and working in the Valley?
As a guy who grew up in Illinois, I first described L.A. – or the Valley – as an acquired taste. I used to wring my hands being in traffic on a Sunday, but I’ve come to love the Valley and Southern California. I think we’re blessed with the best weather in the world. The fact that we get to be outdoors 12 months a year is something that I value dearly. Within a short distance, we’ve got the mountains to play in the snow, and you also have the beaches to go surfing. You’ve got some of the best hiking and biking the world. And on top of that, it’s a robust business environment. I’ve seen my team grow 200-300% since I’ve been a part of it. So not only is it fun for personal reasons, but the business environment has been fantastic.
When building your team, what’s the balance?
It’s a mixture. We definitely have some large firm members of the team, but we also hire a lot of people out of college every year. One of our biggest sources of new employees is CSUN. We’ve gotten a lot of really great students from Northridge, and we’ve developed and brought them up since they’ve joined us. I’ve got people on the partner track who started with us when they were 21 years old.
