Every mandate resolves into a documented, scored and source-graded assessment. Below is the framework we score against, a redacted specimen of the assessment itself, and how the same standard is applied to elite talent underwriting.
A conventional screen returns records. It does not tell a general counsel what the record means, how much of it survives scrutiny, or what residual exposure remains after mitigation. We underwrite people and entities the way an insurer underwrites a risk: against a published rubric, on a normalized scale, with every input traceable to a source of record.
Each finding is scored 1–10 and adjusted through seven modifiers. Category scores are normalized into a composite and expressed as residual exposure — the risk that remains once documented mitigants are credited. Because the rubric is disclosed, the conclusion is contestable, reproducible and defensible in front of an investment committee, a regulator or a court.
The intrinsic gravity of the underlying conduct or exposure, scored 1–10 independent of how it was reported. A contract dispute and a fiduciary breach are not the same instrument and are not scored as though they were.
Temporal decay applied on a defined curve. Recent conduct carries full weight; historic matters attenuate only where the record shows no recurrence and no continuing legal interest.
Whether the finding is isolated or repetitive. A single event is an incident. Three events across separate counterparties is a behavioural characteristic, and is weighted upward accordingly.
The evidentiary quality behind the assertion — primary court record, filed instrument, first-hand source or single-outlet reporting. Uncorroborated allegations are disclosed as uncorroborated and are never scored as fact.
Judicial and procedural finality. Open, stayed, settled, dismissed, resolved with prejudice, or denied on appeal — each carries a distinct weight, because an unresolved proceeding is a live liability and a closed one is a historic fact.
Documented corrective action: restitution, structural governance change, treatment and compliance history, or supervised undertakings. Remediation reduces residual exposure only where it is evidenced, not asserted.
The degree to which the exposure transfers to your institution, brand or fund on execution. Identical conduct scores differently for a consumer brand, a regulated fund and a studio production, because the contagion vector is different.
What arrives at the end of an engagement is an underwriting instrument, not a records printout. Below is the structure of a live institutional brief, reproduced with the subject, counterparties and sourcing removed.
Prepared for brand counsel · Permissible purpose established
Hover or tap an axis marker to read the scoring basis for that metric.
Every subject is scored across the same eight metrics, on the same 1–10 scale, using the same disclosed rubric. The radar is not decoration — it is the decomposition of the composite, and any point on it can be traced back to the instrument that produced it. Committees compare subjects against each other and against your own risk appetite, rather than against an analyst's prose.
Released to verified institutional requesters under NDA · Senior partner review within two hours
For brands, private equity sponsors, agencies and production studios contracting C-tier through A-tier talent. Retainers are structured at $10,000–$20,000 per month against standing clearance coverage.
Open a clearance mandate →A signature is an underwriting decision. Most organisations make it on a press cycle and a reference call.
The exposure created by a talent contract is rarely the conduct itself — it is the unpriced portion of it. A morals clause drafted without a scored record is unenforceable in the moment it is needed. An indemnity negotiated without a solvency picture is a paper remedy. Our mandate is to convert a complex subject into a commercially safe asset by pricing the risk before consideration moves, and by writing the terms that hold if the picture changes.
Docket-level reconstruction of every civil, commercial, employment and regulatory matter touching the subject and their operating entities. Each is reported with its exact posture and effect — resolved with prejudice, dismissed, settled without admission, stayed or open — so that counsel is never surprised by a matter that was described to them as closed.
Structured review of the subject's archival, platform and associate exposure — what a hostile researcher, a plaintiff's firm or a rival campaign would surface within seventy-two hours of the announcement. Findings are scored for corroboration, recency and reach, not for tone.
Liens, judgments, tax positions, guarantees, undisclosed encumbrances and counterparty concentration. Solvency is a performance variable: a subject carrying unpriced obligations is a delivery risk before it is ever a reputational one.
The same conduct does not transfer identically to a consumer brand, a regulated fund and a production. We model the transfer vector to your specific balance sheet and audience, then specify the contractual architecture that contains it.
Clearance is a position, not an event. Where a mandate is retained, the composite is re-derived on a standing cycle and the clearance letter is reissued — so the file in front of your committee is current on the day the option is exercised, not on the day it was written.