Court Examiner for Enron Nominated

Atlanta lawyer R. Neal Batson was nominated Wednesday as special court examiner for Enron Corp., in charge of investigating the complex transactions that led to the company’s collapse.

U.S. Trustee Carolyn Schwartz, a Justice Department official who monitors bankruptcy proceedings, selected Batson after reviewing “at least two dozen excellent candidates,” she said in a statement Wednesday.

The nomination must be approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Arthur Gonzalez. In creating the appointment April 8, Gonzalez established unusual powers for the post, including the ability to waive attorney-client privilege in order to examine communications between Enron employees and their lawyers.

The examiner’s main task is to probe Enron’s “special-purpose entities,” murky partnerships created to conceal corporate borrowings while boosting reported profits. The examiner also would delve into accounting irregularities and the question of whether Enron assets were improperly transferred out of the company before the Dec. 2 bankruptcy filing.

Batson, 61, a partner in the firm of Alston & Bird, served as examiner in the 1989 bankruptcy of the Dallas real-estate concern Southmark Corp. Schwartz called him “one of the top bankruptcy practitioners in the country” and said he is “widely respected for his integrity.”

Approval is expected by the end of this week.

The nationwide search for an examiner took longer than expected partly because of the difficulty in finding qualified candidates whose law firms didn’t already have a role in the massive bankruptcy, according to people involved in the case.

In accepting the nomination, Batson and his firm agreed to “detailed restrictions to avoid conflicting professional relationships that sometimes arise in large and complex bankruptcy cases,” Schwartz said.

As examiner, Batson would be required to file an initial report within 120 days of his appointment and follow-up reports every 120 days thereafter.