Q&A: Skilling's Lawyer on the Appeal

Daniel Petrocelli, who won the civil case against O.J. Simpson, discusses how he will likely appeal the former Enron CEO's guilty verdict

His company collapsed in a matter of weeks, but Jeffrey Skilling will have much longer than that to contemplate what went down. The former chief executive of Enron was sentenced on Oct. 23 to 24 years in prison and ordered to pay $45 million in restitution to former Enron shareholders. "As the many victims have so eloquently testified, his crimes have imposed on hundreds, if not thousands, a life sentence of poverty," said U.S. District Court Judge Simeon Lake III.

Lake ruled that Skilling would not have to report to prison immediately. Instead, he'll remain in his home under electronic surveillance until the U.S. Board of Prisons determines when he should report. The $45 million in restitution represented a large share of the $55 million of Skilling's assets that the government had frozen shortly after his indictment in 2004. The judge also awarded Skilling's lawyer, Daniel Petrocelli, $15.5 million to cover expenses in the case. Petrocelli had argued in court filings that his firm was still owed $30 million for his client's defense.

Skilling was convicted last May on 19 of the 28 counts of conspiracy, fraud, lying to auditors, and insider trading that were brought against him. Also convicted was Enron's former chairman, Kenneth Lay, whose July death of heart failure prompted Judge Lake to vacate the conviction on Oct. 17.

Skilling's sentencing is the latest in a string of high-profile white-collar criminal trials that included the convictions of Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom, Dennis Kozlowski of Tyco International (TYC), and John Rigas of Adelphia Communications. One other notable case, that of former Qwest Communications International (Q) CEO Joseph P. Nacchio, is still pending. Nacchio has maintained his innocence.

Attorney: Justice Not Served

While Skilling's sentence may represent a measure of closure for many former Enron employees and shareholders, it is by no means the end of his legal battle. Petrocelli has vowed to make a vigorous appeal, an effort that could take two years.

Petrocelli first came to prominence in the mid-1990s when he won a $33.5 million verdict against O.J. Simpson in the wrongful-death civil lawsuit brought by the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman. Petrocelli sees parallels between the O.J. criminal case—the one where Simpson was acquitted—and Skilling's, where jurors reached the opposite decision. In neither case does he feels justice was served. Petrocelli spoke with BusinessWeek's Christopher Palmeri at his offices in Los Angeles. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow.

Can you give us a sense of what Skilling's grounds for appeal are likely to be?

A couple of big issues stand out. One is the judge's refusal to move the case out of Houston, combined with later refusal to allow us to individually examine jurors in order to pick a fair jury. The venue issues in this are worse than the Oklahoma City bombing, and that case was moved out of Oklahoma to Denver. Houston perceived itself to be the victim of Enron's collapse. Enron helped pull the town out of recession in the mid-1980s. It helped revitalize the Houston economy and bring it into the new age. Ken Lay could have been elected mayor any time he wanted.

When all that came crashing down in such a spectacular way in a matter of weeks, everybody assumed fraud. The government went into motion—private securities cases, congressional hearings, SEC investigations, and, of course, the criminal justice system. Put yourself on that jury. You're going to go home to your friends and co-workers and say, "I acquitted the two guys who ran Enron." That's asking too much of people. For that reason, it wasn't suitable to try that case in Houston.