To the Defense of Enron

Monday oughta be a helluva lot of fun for Glenn West. Who he? Well, West is the managing partner of the Dallas offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, a Crescent Court-based law firm with 1,200 attorneys across the globe serving “the most successful companies in the world in their high-stakes matters and transactions.” And who might these successful companies be? Well, once upon a time, one of them was Enron. In 2002, Weil Gotshal was Enron’s lead bankruptcy counsel–“a project that is ongoing and lucrative,” Texas Lawyer wrote in 2002 with what now rings of amaaaaaaaazing understatement. Anyway, West–whose big claim to fame locally is that he was in charge of securing the financing for the American Airlines Center–is expected to testify as a defense witness in the fraud trial of former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on Monday, when proceedings resume down in Houston. I never like going to Houston for any reason; imagine that’s why you gotta go. Yech. –Robert Wilonsky