Last week Denver lawyer Frank Schuchat made the claim that Sarbanes-Oxley is manna for lawyers.

He might have a point in that it's created plenty of work for them. But recent developments show that you have to be careful what you wish for.

Before Sarbanes-Oxley, companies didn't have to report options grants until 45 days after the end of the fiscal year in which they were granted. The time gap made it easier for them to rip off shareholders by backdating options. Sarbanes-Oxley tightened the rules and made it harder to backdate with the requirement that companies report options within two business days of the grant.

And now the lawyers, who are both the advisers and, in most cases, the official signers of the fraudulent documents, are going down like nine pins.

The latest is Myron Olesnyckyj, the former general counsel of Monster Worldwide, the company that runs the Monster job search Web site.

Olesnyckyj is one of many in deep doo-doo and the casualty rate is unprecedented. "I have never seen as much turnover in high-profile positions. This has been a watershed,'' Susan Hackett, vice president of the Association of Corporate Counsel told Bloomberg.

Clearly lawyers have become the new pressure point for prosecutors, and that means they have to be extra careful. Michelle explains more in this piece from Legalweek.com