From: mark.metts@enron.com
To: steven.kean@enron.com
Date: 2001-03-19 08:52:00+00:00
Subject: FW: SEC Chairmanship and James R. Doty

Here's the email that I mentioned in my voicemail.  Take care, Mark

 -----Original Message-----
From:  james.doty@bakerbotts.com@ENRON 
[mailto:IMCEANOTES-james+2Edoty+40bakerbotts+2Ecom+40ENRON@ENRON.com] 
Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2001 9:08 AM
To: mmetts@enron.com
Subject: SEC Chairmanship and James R. Doty

  Mark:  If this is not what you had in mind, let me know. I have tried to
give you some detail to back up my claim that I can provided much-needed
stature and leadership to the SEC. I am also addressing what I think may be
some of the objections of constituencies in the corporate and financial
community who have, I believe,  told the Administration not to appoint a
lawyer and former member of the Staff of the SEC. (Of course, Arthur Levitt
was not a lawyer, and was a former head of the Amex, and has rammed through
one of the mose activist regulatory programs in SEC history! So what I am
offering, in part, is balance and respect for process).


1. The President has the opportunity, by appointing Jim Doty, to get the SEC
headed in a direction the corporate and financial community wants and to do
so with broad (indeed, enthusiastic) support from the agency itself, the
corporate and securities bar, the accounting profession and other
constituencies (including the NASDAQ, the NYSE, members of the Congressional
oversight committees and their staff on both sides of the aisle).

 Doty knows securities markets and practices through his work for securities
firms and is well aware of the issues of market structure that will face the
new Chairman--in this he favors continuing to encourage competition and
technological innovation in the markets, and is committed to keeping our
capital markets the best in the world.

 He understands the problems the accounting profession and the
standard-setting bodies are facing--including international accounting
standard issues--and is well equipped to be sure the private standard
setting regime we have relied on works well and with sensitivity to current
realities.  He will not be a "grenade thrower" on the complex
pooling/purchase issues now confronting the SEC and the FASB. (Here it will
be particularly important that the next Chariman give the FASB proposals on
impairment of goodwill in purchase transactions a fair hearing, and not
attempt to "strong arm" the private standard setters into a requiring
accelerated depreciation of goodwill: this is especially critical given the
fragile state of the technology sector.)

 Doty has spent his career advising boards of directors and senior
management on the practical problems businessmen face in dealing with the
SEC. He will bring to the job hands-on experience working with the business
community(corporate and financial), in solving the problems they face in
raising capital and complying with securities regulatory regimes--State,
Federal and cross-border.

 2. Doty has a national reputation as a corporate- and securities- law
expert, has published and is in demand as a speaker.  As a practicing
lawyer, however, Doty would bring some extraordinary qualifications to the
job of running the SEC, which are as folows:

          a. His record as General Counsel of the SEC from 1990-92
demonstrates an understanding of how to work effectively in governmnet.
Doty has the respect of the Staff and will bring credibility within the
building to accomplish needed reform.  During his tenure as the SEC's
General Counsel, with a Democratic majority in Congress, he had a major role
in reform initiatives to reduce costs of raising capital and streamline the
financial regulatory structure under President George H.W.Bush. These
included the Small Business Initiative, which reduced costs for small- and
first-time registrants, and structured finance initiatives to provide more
efficient access to capital markets for seasoned issuers.

          b. Doty is committed to using the exemptive authority under the
Securities Act of 1933 to promote more efficiency and lower costs in the
capital-formation process.  He knows where additional exemptive action or
repeal is needed--as in the Public Utility Holding Company Act, for
example--and he will be a knowledgeable and effective ally of the
Administration, including Cabinet officers, and the Republicans on the Hill,
in promoting further reform and efficiency.

         c. Doty will get the agency behind the President's proposal to
create individual retirement investment accounts for all members of the
workforce.  He is committed to helping the Administration get this done when
they decide to push for it, and knows how the issues of safety can be
practically addressed and the technical objections of critics overcome.

          d. Doty is a consensus-builder, a good listener and an effective
communicator. He is a Texan, a Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Rice
University. He has been active in the communities in which he has lived
(Senior Warden of Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Vestryman of St.
John's Lafayette Square in D.C.). He is a good family man--his wife of 29
years presently serves in the First Lady's Correspondence Office. As a
BakerBotts Senior Partner, Doty can afford to do this for the sake of the
job well done and is not attempting to "polish his resume" for another job.

         e. Most important, Doty has worked tirelessly for this President,
knows the President and his style, and is loyal to the President.  He wants
the President to succeed and will work hard to make sure the policies and
practices of the SEC reflect well on the President and his Administration.