When news of Andersen's Enron woes first surfaced, the other Big Five firms charged after its clients here. Now they realize they may have to get the Andersen people to get the clients. Should Andersen partners vote to nullify their partnership agreement, which includes a noncompete clause, they would be free to move to other firms and take clients with them.

So far, only two South Florida Andersen clients have notified the SEC that they have selected another audit firm -- Kos Pharmaceuticals and World Fuel. And, only one person has left Andersen in South Florida because of the Enron debacle, according to Denise Veitch, an audit partner with Arthur Andersen in South Florida.

Last week, Andersen announced it would lay off 7,000 people nationwide over the next few months, including about 25 of the 360 employees in South Florida, most of them support staff, according to Andersen spokesperson Beth Brown. With year-end audits completed on March 31 and tax season ending today, most accounting firms are likely to reassess their staffing needs.

Behind the scenes, the Big Five and local firms are courting Andersen partners with the belief that where the partners go, their clients and other employees will follow.

Most of the local Andersen clients interviewed by The Miami Herald say they are happy with the service Andersen provides and prefer to stay with the team that already knows how their business operates. But some are making contingency plans should Andersen close its doors.

Jo-Anne Kunin of Kunin Associates, a recruiting firm in Fort Lauderdale, said she's getting calls from local accounting firms targeting Andersen employees and is working with some. Kunin said the Big Five firms are contacting Andersen partners on their own.

"The Big Five firms partners know each other," she said. "They are recruiting in groups rather than individuals. Andersen people are very loyal. A lot wouldn't be looking if not for what's happening. "

Kunin said even before Andersen's Enron problems, the market was oversupplied with accountants commanding salaries of more than $80,000. She attributes it to the failure of dot-coms, several companies relocating from South Florida, and others filing bankruptcy.

WELCOMING THE ATTENTION: The glare of the spotlight is on the accounting profession, and Jesus Diaz of Ernst & Young in Miami sees it as a chance for auditors to recraft their image.

"The auditing profession is not perfect," Diaz said last week. "We welcome the spotlight. With it on us, we'll get better at what we do."

Diaz and the top partners at South Florida's Big Five accounting firms gathered last week to discuss the turmoil created by the Enron debacle and the changes that should occur. Evelyn D'An, an Ernst & Young audit partner, moderated the discussion at the monthly meeting of the Women in International Trade in Miami. These are just a few of her questions and the panelists' answers.

QUESTION: As a business owner, what questions should I ask of my auditors?

DIAZ: "Business owners should ask, `How can I educate my auditor in terms of where the risks are and how can he help to minimize them?' "

Q: What role should the audit committee play to ensure auditors are doing their jobs?

A: Sherrill Hudson, managing partner of Deloitte & Touche in South Florida: "All too many companies have people who look at board membership as an honorary position rather than hard work. Many boards are made up of retired executives who are not current and others who don't attend. Not enough have qualified people with the financial acumen they should have to ask the right questions. The audit committee should understand a company's style of financial reporting: Is it aggressive or conservative?"

Q: What are the right questions?

Denise Veitch, audit partner with Arthur Andersen: "Warren Buffett suggests asking, `If you were the CFO, would you present anything differently?' I think if you are an audit committee member you should know what are the burning issues. In addition to spending quality time with auditors, you should spend time with the CEO and CFO and ask them what keeps them up at night. Is it payment of next installment of debt, is it lack of product innovation ... ?"

Q: At Andersen, what's the human toll locally of the Enron debacle?

Veitch: "In South Florida we have only lost two clients here. Clients understand and know our professionalism. We are waiting patiently to see what happens. It's been very tense. But people are still very busy. As of March 31 (the deadline for public company reporting), our people were 96 percent chargeable. We all are anxious about what comes next. Everyday I read the paper and figure out if I should go to work."

Q: What will happen differently in the profession in the short term?

Hector Mojena, managing partner of KPMG in South Florida: "I think you'll see more regulation proposed. The current standard-setting process is not responsive to the current business environment. From the client's perspective, the message has hit home. They know investors want more disclosure, more transparency in financial reporting. Companies are going out of their way to be informative. One client has added 10 pages to its annual report."

Hudson: "People don't understand what CPAs do. We have to do a better job educating them about what we do. An auditor's job is to render an opinion on the fairness of financial statements. We're not the generators of the financial statements."

Dominic Pino, a partner with PriceWaterhouseCoopers in Miami "Congressional limits on the scope of services is the biggest issue facing accounting firms. I think in the short term we'll see changes, and they're not all welcome."

Q: How should make people make decisions about what to invest in?

Veitch: "Read the financial statements. Read the risk factors."

Mojena: "You should be suspicious if a company changes its auditor often. Also when the level of complexity in its financial statements reaches a point where they are hard to understand, it doesn't make business sense. It could be a sign that there could be issues."

Q: Would you sit on a corporate board today, and are you less likely to do it than a year ago?

Hudson: "I'm the closest one in this group to retirement 59. I would serve and do plan to serve on corporate boards when I retire. However, I have three requirements. I have to be comfortable with the quality of management, the quality of the board and they have to have plenty of directors and officers insurance."

Q: Who is responsible for the integrity of the financial statements?

Diaz: "Management. I would like to editorialize a minute. Imagine you wake up in a world where there is no public accountants. How would you like to make financial decisions in that environment?"

D'An, moderator of the panel and said she feels the panelists educated the audience: "People have forgotten that accounting firms and other outside professionals are not the ones responsible for the integrity and quality of companies' financial information. That remains management's responsibility. I think the panelists did a superb job in closing that expectation gap."

WHITE-COLLAR CRIME: Lee Stapleton Milford wanted lawyers at Baker & McKenzie to refer her business. After all, their office in Miami had no one practicing in her area, white-collar criminal defense. She set up a lunch with partner Don Hayden and pitched him on her qualifications. She wound up with much more than business. She wound up with a new job.

Milford has joined Baker & McKenzie as an equity partner in Miami. Two years ago, Milford left the U.S. Attorney's office after 16 years. She joined Aragon Burlington Weil in Miami, where many of her friends and former prosecutors now worked. Milford said she would never have left Aragon, a 10-lawyer litigation boutique, had it not been for Hayden's offer. Baker & McKenzie is one of the world's largest law firms with more than 3,100 attorneys in 55 offices.

"For someone who is doing white-collar with an international component, my cases are increasingly becoming hybrids, with securities, tax, and corporate considerations. Now all these areas can be addressed within the firm," Milford said.

Milford will become Baker's only white-collar criminal defense lawyer in Miami. She says it is a great opportunity to get business from corporate clients within Baker & McKenzie.

"If someone in Baker's Dallas office represents a corporation that gets a grand-jury subpoena, they can call me to help their client," she said.

"I represent South Americans. They have offices in South America. It's a good platform for me."

Milford, who last week also celebrated her selection to the Orange Bowl Committee, said her colleagues/friends at the Aragon firm took her departure well: "They acted like friends. They're happy for me."

ON BOARD: The Richmond-based law firm of Hunton & Williams has just elected Miami's Wally Martinez as its first Hispanic board member. The law firm, founded in 1901, has a 15-member executive committee (or board of directors). Martinez's election to a two-year term gives the Miami office its second board seat. Miami managing partner Marty Steinberg was elected to the board by a majority of the firm's 280 partners in December. The Miami office opened three years ago and now has 40 lawyers. The firm has 850 lawyers in 17 offices.

"Not every office has even one lawyer on the executive committee. We have two," notes Martinez, an international commercial litigator.

"It's not a bad thing," Martinez said of being the first Hispanic on the board. "Miami is the first office in a heavy Hispanic area. It shows that they are embracing the Miami office."

Martinez said the firm has had women and African American board members in prior years. "They always have told us the key to firm's growth is international," he said. "By giving us these positions it is living up to its commitment to make Miami an important market to the firm."