The lawyers were brought in because corporations have to protect themselves. You can bet the airlines that crashed on 9/11 have hundreds of lawyers fighting in countless courts this very minute - because that's what our society has devolved into.
Buses that have a fender-bender in NYC create more "victims" than the bus could ever hold! People flock to enter the disabled vehicle so they can file a lawsuit and cash in from insurance companies. It's a local joke. I know Exxon had to deal with the same liability from fishermen, campers, and anyone else who may even have passed within 50 miles of Valdez.
Exxon had ONE employee who had a drinking problem and his problem turned into a catastrophe - that they had to clean up. That one jerk changed history. That one jerk is a big reason we pay much more for gasoline at the pump today. Bottom line: How much hell do you want to deal them for that one tragic accident?
Exxon did not cause what happened - not even indirectly. They suffered from the actions of one idiot. They paid out millions of dollars for clean-up companies to scrub rocks, to recover and treat birds and mammals and lay boom to contain oil. I've seen pictures of that area today and you wouldn't know anything ever happened there.
So tell me, if you're a capitalist, would it make you happier if they closed their company down and locked their doors for good? Do you even realize how many people would be out of work? Do you realize how many satellite companies would close? Do you honestly believe the execs of Exxon ever meant for Valdez to happen, or that they could control what one drunken man in one ship did to them? No way.