CEO Howard Paster spearheads a seven-member Hill and Knowlton team that is trying to salvage Enron Corp. The firm is managing the flow of information between new management and Capitol Hill.

Paster, the White House lobbyist for former President Clinton, is assisted on the account by H&K vice chairman Gary Hymel, who worked for ex-House Speaker Democrat Tip O'Neill; Paul Clarke, a staffer in the first Bush Administration, and Brian Hart, an ex-staffer to Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire.

Harlan Teller, H&K's global chief client officer, said the firm has a team on the ground in Houston assisting Enron's corporate PR unit. The focus is on Enron's future as a going concern, he told this website.

Enron CEO Ken Lay resigned on Jan. 23, and left the board on Feb. 4. President Jeff McMahon stepped down on April 19. The Houston company is headed by interim CEO Stephen Cooper, the managing partner of Zolfo Cooper. That firm's 85 staffers have handled corporate restructurings, such as Federated Department Stores, Morrison Knudsen and Polaroid. The goal is to forge a new Enron based on its "hard" pipeline and electricity assets.

Enron is the subject of a front-page Wall Street Journal story today (April 26).