If you had to dream up an event of sufficient magnitude to persuade UK law firms to become limited liability partnerships (LLPs), you could not have done better than the Enron scandal.

Not only has it led to the demise of one of the world’s largest professional services firms -Andersen – but now two leading US firms, Vinson & Elkins and Kirkland & Ellis, have been included in the multi-billion dollar law suit by former shareholders of Enron.