BusinessWeek story about Enron’s lawyers
BusinessWeek has published a very interesting story about the outside counsel for Enron, Vinson & Elkins. The firm played in integral role in Enron’s deals, and the SEC is investigating the advice that the firm gave Enron. The question remains whether the law firm was a co-conspirator in the shenanigans, or whether it was just an unknowing part of drafting documents for bad deals.
From the article:
Amid all the carnage that has surrounded Enron’s collapse, one player in the drama has remained remarkably unscathed: Vinson & Elkins, the giant Houston law firm that played a central role advising the company throughout its spectacular rise and fall. Accounting firm Arthur Andersen is dead, JPMorgan Chase has spent $2.2 billion settling a shareholder fraud lawsuit filed in a Houston federal court, a handful of other banks and outside Enron directors have coughed up nearly $5 billion more, and yet V&E has not even had a slap on the wrist. Not a single lawyer at the firm has faced professional misconduct charges by the Texas bar, the firm has yet to pay a penny in damages, and Joseph Dilg, the partner who oversaw the Enron account, is now V&E’s managing partner. In 2005, it became the first Texas law firm in which average partner compensation broke $1 million.
Read the whole article here.
Tags: outside counsel, Enron, SEC, conspirator, Arthur Andersen, shareholder fraud, misconduct, damages
