Practice
Pre-deal verification of the asset and the counterparty
Pre-deal verification is engaged before money moves, not after a payment stops. It applies when a counterparty, a fund manager, or a platform proposes a structure and the client wants to know what stands behind it before signing. The paid first assessment produces a written record of what could be checked and what could not, so the decision to proceed or walk away rests on documented facts.
When this practice applies
This practice is used before a wire transfer, a subscription agreement, or a shareholder commitment is signed. Clients come to it after being offered a stake, a promissory note, or access to a private fund, before they have any reason yet to expect non-payment. It also applies retrospectively, when a first tranche has already gone through and a second is being requested before the counterparty's position has been checked. The same facts that later feed a refusal claim, corporate registration status, signatory authority, prior litigation, are checked here first. See how these facts surface once a dispute has already started in refusal types this firm handles and in a documented example of a non-payment scenario involving a UAE-based debtor.
What the paid first assessment produces
The fee covers a fixed piece of work, not an open-ended engagement. The client receives a written report on the counterparty's registration status, its public litigation and enforcement history where such records are searchable, and the ownership or signatory chain as shown in the documents provided. The report states which points could be verified from public sources and which could not. It does not predict how a deal will turn out. Two related resources describe the underlying method: a checklist for preserving evidence before a dispute starts and a checklist used before any settlement is signed. Fees for legal services are not published; the price of this first assessment is quoted on request.
How the work is scoped
Scope is set by what needs checking, not by a standard package. A single counterparty check differs from verification of a multi-party fund structure with several layers of holding entities. The number of jurisdictions involved, the volume of documents supplied by the client, and whether public registries are searchable in the relevant jurisdiction all change the time required. Where the underlying transaction needs restructuring advice rather than a check on an existing proposal, that work sits with investment structuring and is scoped separately. The client is told before work starts what is included and what would require a separate instruction.
Where this practice hands over
If the assessment turns up grounds for concern, and the client decides to proceed with a claim, the file moves to the relevant refusal-type practice rather than staying with verification. If a foreign judgment or award already exists and the question becomes how to make a counterparty pay, the matter moves to enforcement. Verification does not itself pursue payment; it produces the record the next step relies on. A full list of what the firm handles beyond this stage is on the services page.
What we do not take on
This practice does not verify assets beyond what public records and client-supplied documents show; it does not conduct physical investigation or surveillance. It does not issue opinions on whether a deal will succeed, and it does not act on a contingency or success fee. There is no fee tied to recovery, and the firm handling this work can be checked in the public registry linked from this site's footer. Clients who want to confirm that before instructing should also read how to verify a law firm.