This article views Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) as good for lawyers:

Sarbanes-Oxley has been a veritable boon for corporate and securities lawyers across the United States. No CEO in his right mind wants to end up sharing a cell with Skilling or Ebbers or, heaven forbid, the likes of some poor fellow who knocked off a 7-Eleven for a couple of hundred bucks and a carton of Winstons. Martha Stewart might not be a bad cellmate, especially if neatness is your thing, but she has already paid her debt to society. There is a real premium these days on professional advice that will keep executives on the right side of the law and out of the slammer.

Sarbanes-Oxley is manna for lawyers By Frank Schuchat, Rocky Mountain News, February 10, 2007

So one view is of SOX as a sort of full employment act for lawyers.

The article does mention why all the laywers:

Now CEOs have an obligation to actually know what is in their company’s SEC filings,

Actually, that part sounds like a good thing. Maybe SOX is doing some good in reducing business risk for corporate customers and society at large.

-jsq