Monday, January 05, 2004

Whatever Happened to MDP's?
They died with Enron and Arthur Andersen.

The New York Law Journal reports that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act dealt a blow to the Big Four accounting firms' legal services initiatives and whatever remains of their multidisciplinary practice ambitions. The global law networks that once rivaled the world's largest law firms are in the midst of a vast restructuring. Meanwhile, in the United States and overseas, the migration of prominent tax lawyers into the giant accounting firms appears to have reversed course. 'It will be a long while before multidisciplinary practice turns up again, if ever,' said Sherwin P. Simmons, chairman of the tax group at Steel Hector & Davis of Miami and former chair of the American Bar Association's former Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice. " More at NYLawyer.