Many have compteted over the last few years to write the tale of Enron's legacy for America's business community and the economy at large. Andrew Weissmann, the former director of the Department of Justice's Enron Task Force and a partner in the New York office of Jenner & Block has offered the benefit of his experience at Law.com. His feeling? Compliance is catching on as good business:

..."good business dictates good compliance. Even the hint of scandal can send the price of a company's stock plummeting. Academic reports are showing a correlation between compliance and stock price: Corporations that perform effective checks on their internal controls actually outperform those with weak internal systems. Moreover, an effective ethics and compliance system is the best means to prevent a scandal from occurring in the first place. As a board member observed at a recent ethics and governance training session I conducted, the lesson he learned was that "managing" a major corporate scandal is an oxymoron, and consequently the best solution is preventing it from ever happening."

More good here.

-- MDT

Labels: Andrew Weissmann, Enron