WHAT ABOUT THE LAWYERS? Enron's auditors and bankers have been under the spotlight. Now, BusinessWeek reveals the attorneys' role

These are not happy days for Enron Corp.'s hired hands. The company's auditor, Arthur Andersen LLP, has been driven out of business. Its bankers, including Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., have been pilloried repeatedly, most recently in the Senate on Dec. 11. But one group of professionals has so far escaped the inquisition: the energy giant's lawyers. Are the lawyers as innocent as they claim? Vinson & Elkins and Enron's other outside law firms have taken far less heat than the company's accountants and bankers, but they played an equally important role in concocting the controversial transactions that allegedly concealed the company's true performance. Indeed, there is no way Enron's left hand could have sold so many assets to its right hand without creative input from both inside and outside counsel.