Business Week has a feature piece on the rise of the Lawyer-CEO in corporate America. In NYC alone, the new ruling class of lawyer-CEOs includes Kenneth Chenault (American Express), Richard Parsons (Time Warner), Charles O. Prince III (Citigroup) and Sumner Redstone (Viacom). By some estimates, 10.8% of the CEOs of companies in the S&P 500 are lawyers -- and that number could rise, as troubled companies look to head off nasty litigation or clean up after public scandals.

But do lawyers make good CEOs? "Often unschooled in core skills such as accounting or finance, lawyers start their careers in a strange world where risk is frowned upon, colorful marketing is unethical, people rarely work in big teams, and nobody makes a decision without reviewing stacks of paperwork first... So it is hardly surprising that people do ask questions when a career lawyer becomes a CEO..."