NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Innocent or guilty? Does it even matter?

The jury in the Arthur Andersen obstruction of justice trial began deliberations Thursday and resumed working Friday morning in Houston. But regardless of the verdict, followers of the accounting industry held little hope that the beleaguered firm will survive for much longer.

"The scenarios are basically the same. Andersen as we know it is dead whether there is an acquittal or they are found guilty," says Art Bowman, editor of Bowman's Accounting Report, a magazine that covers the accounting industry.

Andersen, which has been accused of obstruction of justice for its role in the Enron bankruptcy, has lost hundreds of auditing clients since it came to light that David Duncan, the former partner in charge of the Enron account at Andersen's Houston office, gave orders that led to the destruction of key documents related to Enron.

As a result of the scandal, the firm has laid off 7,000 workers, sold off its tax business and lost or dealt many of its international subsidiaries to rival firms. Dan Goldwasser, a partner with law firm Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz who represents the New York State Society of CPAs, says that even if the company is found not guilty it's highly unlikely that it will be able to attract many new auditing clients.

A spokeswoman for Andersen said Thursday that the company would release a statement about its future once the verdict was announced.

And since Andersen has been shedding its foreign affiliates, the company won't be able to serve large multinational companies any more. "With what it's got left, the only practice it can conduct is likely to be a middle market practice," says Goldwasser. In addition, Goldwasser says that individual states can choose to strip Andersen's license to act as an auditor, a scenario that he thinks is possible.

But even if the states leave Andersen alone, there's a good chance that the remaining auditing clients that Andersen has may soon leave too, says John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University who specializes in securities law and corporate crime. He thinks corporations that still have their statements audited by Andersen are simply waiting to see where the partners they work with wind up and will then move their business to those firms. "Companies are resigned to the fact that Arthur Andersen is soon to be deceased," Coffee says.

The resolution of the criminal trial is also probably just the beginning of Andersen's legal woes.

The company still has to face an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And if Andersen is found guilty, it would lose the legal right to audit firms that file to the SEC, says Larry Gill, a partner with law firm Schiff Hardin & Waite. Gill says he thinks the SEC would probably provide an exemption period to allow current customers to find new auditors.

And Goldwasser says that the companies that have already left Andersen for other auditors will probably review past financial statements closely. "Every one of Andersen's clients that goes to a new firm are going to have their financial statements viewed very, very scrupulously. None of them want to make Andersen's problems their problems," he says.

That could lead to more former customers of Andersen restating earnings and another round of class action lawsuits by disgruntled investors. Shareholders of Enron and Global Crossing, the bankrupt telecom firm that was also an Andersen client, have already named Andersen in class actions filed against the two companies. "The fact of the matter is these suits all involve potential damages far in excess of the firm's ability to pay," Goldwasser says.

Coffee says that the only reason Andersen let the case go to trial in the first place is that the company's fate was already sealed once a large number of customers abandoned Andersen. Hence, the firm had nothing to lose. "The partnership knew the firm was no longer viable so there was no reason not to roll the dice. If their survival depended on this jury they probably would have settled," he says.

So what benefit would there be for Andersen if the jury found it not guilty? Probably not much. "An acquittal would be a moral victory but basically a moral victory for a corpse," says Bowman. "The name Arthur Andersen, once held in such high regard, is now a joke."