AS CONGRESS and other lawyers probe Vinson & Elkins for culpability in the Enron Corp. collapse, leading figures in the corporate bar are increasingly expressing concern that the scandal will dampen the willingness of both clients and lawyers to engage in cutting-edge transactions and, like the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, may ultimately result in an activist government targeting law firms.
At a law firm management conference held at the Times Square Marriott Marquis on Monday, conference co-chair H. Rodgin Cohen, the chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell, ended his introductory statement by suggesting that “Enron is far from an unmitigated benefit to the profession.”
