With an era of corporate scandals in the rearview mirror, an increasing number of attorneys are deciding that the benefits of serving as directors of public companies outweigh the risks.
Scandals in the early part of the decade — Enron, HealthSouth, WorldCom — prompted Congress to pass a new law expanding the liability exposure of public company board members, especially for claims of conflicting interests. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was blamed for forcing some attorneys to leave boards of companies that were clients of their firms.
