Rate My Professor Rebecca Files

Rebecca Files is an Associate Professor of Accounting in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at The University of Texas at Dallas, contributing to the Business & Economics faculty. She earned her Ph.D. in Accounting from Texas A&M University in 2009, M.S. in Finance in 2004, and B.B.A. in Accounting in 2004, both summa cum laude from Texas A&M. Files joined UT Dallas in 2009 as Assistant Professor and Sydney Smith Hicks Faculty Fellow, advancing to Associate Professor. She served as Area Coordinator for the Accounting Area and Associate Research Director for the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance from 2016 to 2024. Earlier, she was a Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant at Texas A&M and held audit internships at Deloitte and KPMG.

Her research specializes in financial accounting and reporting, strategic disclosure, accounting restatements, SEC enforcement, class action lawsuits, and pro forma earnings. Files has published in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting and Economics, The Accounting Review, and Contemporary Accounting Research. Key works include “SEC Enforcement: Does Forthright Disclosure and Cooperation Really Matter?” (Journal of Accounting and Economics, 2012), which earned the Glen McLaughlin Prize for Research in Accounting Ethics (2010-2011); “Stealth Disclosure of Accounting Restatements” with Edward P. Swanson and Senyo Tse (The Accounting Review, 2009); “Unraveling Financial Fraud: The Role of the Board of Directors and External Advisors in Conducting Independent Internal Investigations” with Michelle Liu (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2022); “Regulator-Cited Cooperation Credit and Firm Value: Evidence from Enforcement Actions” with Gerald S. Martin and Stephanie Rasmussen (The Accounting Review, 2019); and “Lenders’ Response to Peer and Customer Restatements” with Umit Gurun (Contemporary Accounting Research, 2018). Her scholarship examines regulator cooperation, firm value impacts, and disclosure practices, influencing accounting regulation and investor confidence. Files excels in teaching, receiving the UT System Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award (2014), President’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2013), Jindal School Undergraduate Teaching Award and Faculty of the Year (2021), FARS Excellence in Reviewing Award (2016), and FARS Outstanding Service Award (2019). She has served as national meeting co-coordinator for FARS and spoken at the UT Dallas Fraud Summit.