The First Thing We Do, Let's Hire All the Lawyers

The ongoing testimony of James Derrick, Enron's former general counsel, has shed some light on Enron's remarkable affinity for lawyers.

To wit:
-- Enron had 200 in-house lawyers.
-- In addition, the company employed more than 100 outside law firms from around the world.
-- Among the Houston outside firms Enron employed, the company was the No. 1 client of three of the city's largest firms.
-- Derrick instituted a policy whereby outside counsel could be hired and fired only by Enron lawyers, not by Enron "business people," as Derrick called them, meaning non-lawyers.

By Frank Ahrens |  April 6, 2006; 12:35 PM ET  | Category:  Sidebars
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