Governance and the Law After Enron
from
July/August 2002
by William B. King
American business has always adapted to change, be it an epochal
shift of Industrial Revolution magnitude or a challenge presented by
new accounting rules. Business takes a stutter-step, catches its
balance, and moves on.
We should expect no less in the post-Enron age. And without according epochal status to what may ultimately be viewed as no more than a major embarrassment, the aftermath of Enron has had a profound impact on how our readers, company directors, go about the business of governance. Forget about ripple effects. Enron created white-capped waves that are pounding boardrooms across the U.S., drenching all board members in suspicion and blame and, in many cases, exposing them to the very real danger of litigation. Directors, many of whom both sought and enjoyed anonymity in the past, are caught in the glare of everybody’s headlights. Governance will never be the same.
Post-Enron, too, the law takes on even greater significance, as does the need for sound legal counsel—for companies and for the men and women who govern them. Like business, the legal profession is adapting to a world that bears little resemblance to what it looked like a decade ago—and some law firms are doing so more adroitly than others. To identify America’s best corporate lawyers and the firms where they ply their trade, we surveyed a representative cross section of our readers, asking them, as we did last year: What are the finest law firms in the land, and which ones lead the profession in 50 local markets?
Our original idea was to deliver another top-20 list of national firms, and to identify 250 local leaders, this time ranking the winners one through five in each city. (Last year the local lists were alphabetical.) It didn’t work out that way. Ties for the 18th and 20th places among the national candidates expand that list to 21. Ties in the local listings leave several metropolitan areas with more than five top firms; Memphis has the most, eight. Think of the extra names as bonuses.
The national rankings begin on page 48. We describe the particular areas of excellence that won the top 21 firms the admiration of our readers, and also profile some of the individual attorneys who have helped win these laurels for their firms. Don’t look for a sea of pinstriped suits. One lawyer fills her office with rock ’n’ roll memorabilia. Another spends his off-hours at Ground Zero, helping small businesses get back on their feet after the terrorist attacks. And yes, a few count Enron among their clients—or their prey. The local listings begin on page 92.
The cover package ends with “Up-and-Comers” (page 112), an article featuring six lawyers under the age of 40 who have already made their mark on the profession, some in the corporate arena and others in academe or government—all traditional spawning grounds for great attorneys. We selected these people with help from some of their peers, among them several of those we identified last year as legal superstars. These included Arnold & Porter’s William Baer, Irell & Manella’s Morgan Chu, and Weil Gotshal’s Harvey Miller. The only restriction we put on them was that they couldn’t nominate lawyers in their own firms. We also got input from some of the country’s smartest academics: Charles Elson, director of the Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware; Duke Bristow, senior fellow at the Harold Price Center at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management; and William Allen, former chancellor of the Delaware Chancery Court and now a law professor at New York University.
Quite a jury, and one certain to deliver the right verdict.
