Elegy Written In an Uncomfortable Chair

Elegy Written In an Uncomfortable Chair

Normally, when the government brings suspect charges against a company and helps to put that company out of business, one would expect that the company would have some remedy when the charges are ultimately dismissed. But what if that company was Arthur Andersen? Now, there were many reasons that Andersen collapsed, and it is certainly not the most sympathetic of companies. (Dawn 2: close your eyes!) Indeed, they are certainly responsible in many ways for the collapses of Enron, WorldCom and the like; but, in the end, their insurance likely would have absorbed the blow of the civil litigation. (Dawn 2: You can open those eyes now.) But it took the criminal conviction to kill Andersen off. The former Andersen partners unconnected to the scandals are a whole lot worse off as result and, with only four big accounting firms left, I am not so sure if this was the best of results for the public either.