The increasing co-dependence between investment banks and their legal advisers took another twist this week with the news that US regulators are pressing for lawyers to be present at any meeting between corporate financiers and research analysts.
The central issue is that of analyst independence, a crusade beginning to take on importance – in the eyes of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) at least – to parallel that of the post-Enron debate over auditor independence and multi-disciplinary partnerships.
