Outside Attorney Charged in Refco Collapse

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York had charged the outside lawyer for Refco, a partner with the law firm of Mayer Brown LLP, will aiding Refco financial fraud.  He is charged with documenting a series of fraudulent "round trip" loans between related entities designed to keep debt off Refco's books.  Lawyers are rarely charged in financial fraud cases and charges against outside lawyers are even rarer still.  Yet anyone in business well knows that most modern financial fraud require the preparation and use of fraudulent legal documents that are almost always prepared by always prepared by lawyers.  I welcome these prosecutions both as a warning to lawyers and as useful to lawyers in refusing requests from clients that want them to prepare such documents.  Reputational and professional accountability has apparently not been enough.