MONDAY MORNING
After Enron, Fighting Off the Job Offers
Monday, June 5, 2006; Page D02
The government lawyers who won convictions of former Enron Corp. leaders Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling after a grueling four-month trial in Houston will probably spend their summer resting up -- and fending off entreaties from law firms eager to attract white-collar specialists.
Kathryn H. Ruemmler, who at 35 is among the youngest and longest-serving members of the Justice Department's Enron Task Force, is just such a find, local legal recruiters say. She is also the only Washington-based lawyer among the lead team of four prosecutors.
  Kathryn H. Ruemmler, 35, is among the longest-serving members of the Enron Task Force. (By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post) |
Ruemmler delivered the prosecution's closing argument, in which she urged the jury to hold both men accountable for "accounting tricks, fiction, hocus pocus . . . and outright lies."
She also questioned former investor relations chief Mark E. Koenig and former treasurer Ben F. Glisan Jr., mentioned by several jurors in follow-up interviews as the most effective and credible of the government's 25 witnesses.
Between school at Georgetown University Law Center and a stint as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office, Ruemmler worked in the District law offices of Zuckerman Spaeder LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP -- experience that gave her a flavor of life in the private sector and that makes her a bigger draw. She also worked for a year in the White House counsel's office during the Clinton administration.
"There'd be definite interest in a person like that," said Steve Nelson of the McCormick Group, an Arlington-based recruiting firm. "There's a shortage of people who are kind of younger up-and-comers."
Nelson, who is managing principal for law and government affairs, said the increasing focus on law firm profitability can make direct recruits from government a tougher sell. But Ruemmler's private-sector experience and contacts should make that transition much easier.
Ruemmler spent the week after the trial taking a break and reacquainting herself with life in Washington. But she is heading back to Houston for a quick visit to handle paperwork, close up shop and prepare for the sentencing of key government cooperators later in the summer.
"This has been an incredibly rewarding but all-consuming experience," Ruemmler said. "I plan to take the next couple of months to reflect on what's next."
-- Carrie Johnson
