Sticking their nose in other people's business...that's what

It's interesting to see where consultants' names pop up in the news these days. You won't find any headlines about consulting firms going out of business, nor will you find much in the way of layoffs or cutbacks within a consulting firm's ranks. (At least not yet, that is.) Instead, consultants are making themselves heard from among the economic clean-up crew.

On Monday, I talked about Alvarez & Marsal's role over at Lehman. Now, consultants are chiming in on the executive pay hullabaloo that's been populating the airwaves this week. The general consensus among compensation consultants is that Obama's plan has some serious loopholes that will hinder its effectiveness. For example, they point to the language of the proposal, which calls for a $500,000 cap on annual compensation for senior executives of companies that receive future "exceptional" government aid. To skirt these issues, experts point out, financial institutions might give their leaders titles other than "senior executive," and will cushion their meager half-mill compensation with loads of restricted stock. Michael Kesner, of Deloitte's compensation consulting practice, claims that this practice will result in a disconnect between executive comp and operating profits or share price gains.

Executives have caught on to these weaknesses as well. As Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar stated earlier this week, "It?s not really restricting the way we do business but it was not meant to be permanent capital," with regard to the $10 million the firm got from the government. ?There are pretty minor, at this point, executive compensation restrictions and we?d like to get out from under those,? he said. Of course, none of Goldman's heavy-hitters (nor any at JPMorgan Chase, CitiGroup, Merrill or any of the other financial institutions that received financial aid before February 4, when the bill was announced) will be affected by the cap, since its terms are not retroactive.

Also working its way into the spotlight via financial scrum is turnaround and restructuring firm AlixPartners. Best known for its work to reverse the fortunes of struggling companies, AlixPartners must now put its best foot forward to handle the claims of Madoff's victims. Hired by Irving Picard, the trustee charged with liquidating Madoff's "firm" (if you can call it that), AlixPartners has compiled a 162-page court list of Madoff's clients. It's an important distinction, I suppose, that not every client on the list was duped by the mastermind, but rather, it includes "everyone who might have an interest in the bankruptcy case," according to a person briefed on the document.