Business allies: a ranking of Colorado firms in a dozen key professional services.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: Company rankings

The ranking of professional service firms has taken various forms since ColoradoBiz initiated the feature in 2002. It began four years ago as a ranking, based on number of employees, of six traditional professional services--law, accounting, advertising/PR, engineering, general contracting and architecture.

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In subsequent years, we tinkered with the format, adding services that we deemed vital for businesses such as real estate and health-care insurance, and one year turned the process over to the audience with a "readers' choice" ballot deciding the pecking orders.

Last year, we expanded the number of business categories to 12 in an attempt to better reflect key business service-providers, and we went back to ranking companies by size--in terms of either number of employees or, when possible, by financial performance.

The figures used to compile the rankings here are self-reported except where otherwise specified in footnotes under the rankings. Real estate numbers were provided by the Colorado Association of Realtors; health insurance information was provided by the Colorado Division of Insurance, and lending information was provided by the Small Business Administration's Region VIII Office in Denver.

TOP COLORADO-BASED ACCOUNTING FIRMS Ranked by number of employees No. of Company Employees City Phone Ehrardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman 306 Denver (303) 740-9400 Hein & Associates LLP 203 Denver (303) 298-9600 Gordon, Hughes & Banks LLP 86 Golden (303) 986-2454 Dalby, Wendland & Co. P.C. 85 Grand (970) 243-1921 Junction GHP Horwath P.C. 75 Denver (303) 831-5000 Company Website Ehrardt Keefe Steiner & Hottman www.eksh.com Hein & Associates LLP www.heincpa.com Gordon, Hughes & Banks LLP www.ghbcpa.com Dalby, Wendland & Co. P.C. www.dalbywendland.com GHP Horwath P.C. www.ghpcpa.com TOP COLORADO-BASED AD/PR FIRMS Ranked by number of employees No. of Company Employees City Phone McClain Finlon Advertising 220 Denver (303) 436-9400 Leopard* 117 Broomfield (303) 527-2900 Sterling-Rice Group 101 Boulder (303) 381-6400 Network Affiliates 97 Lakewood (303) 232-2707 Karsh & Hagan Communications 85 Denver (303) 296-8400 Company Website McClain Finlon Advertising www.mcclainfinlon.com Leopard* www.leopard.com Sterling-Rice Group www.srg.com Network Affiliates www.netaff.com Karsh & Hagan Communications www.karsh.com *Aquired by New York-based OgilvyOne North America in June 2006 and operates in Broomfield as an independent unit of...