K Street is vying for a piece of the soon-to-thrive "crisis management" business

Deee-fense, Deee-fense Deee-fense.

You can almost hear the chant rising from corporate offices all over town. As soon as Democrats take over Congress next month, all sorts of businesses will no doubt face sharp-elbowed congressional hearings called O & I -- oversight and investigations. And they'll need a strong defense.

Luckily for corporate America, many of the people who formerly conducted those nasty and frequently televised inquiries have switched sides and are available for hire to the highest bidders. For the right fee, a company can retain a former chief counsel to almost any of the most marauding committees on Capitol Hill.

Think of it as a cottage industry, and a very large cottage at that.

So many inquisitions are about to be begun by the Democrats newly in charge that dozens of law and PR firms are bulking up with former insiders to cash in on all the trouble those hearings will create. Companies that were harassed in the past by smart young government lawyers have lately been buying the services of those same young lawyers, now in the private sector, for protection from their successors.

"A lot of companies are reaching out to law firms and lobbying shops because they're nervous about what's ahead," said Mark R. Paoletta, chief counsel for oversight and investigations at the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The business of cushioning the blow from congressional inquiries is expected to grow enormously because "Democrats are going to be very, very active," he said.

Certainly he hopes so. Paoletta, 44, is reversing allegiances in January. He has been hired by the law firm Dickstein Shapiro to specialize in guiding clients through congressional investigations -- the same kinds of investigations he's directed for the past nine years. Andrew L. Snowdon, an oversight and investigations counsel for the same committee, is also headed to Dickstein Shapiro.

Why the big turnabout? "I have four kids," Paoletta said. His oldest, he said, attends a private high school that costs $26,000 a year. Of his current post, he said, "I don't think there's a better job in the world." But corporations on the griddle need representation too, and they pay better.