Conflict of Interest Check Agent
Screens new matters, clients, and business relationships against existing client, employee, and vendor records to identify potential conflicts of interest.
Before taking on a new client engagement, hiring an executive, or entering a significant vendor relationship, organizations need to check for conflicts against existing clients, board relationships, employee financial interests, and related-party structures, but this screening is often done manually through disclosure forms and institutional memory that misses non-obvious relationships
Undetected conflicts can result in disqualification from matters, breach of fiduciary duty claims, or reputational damage once discovered later
This agent cross-references new matter, hire, or relationship details against a maintained database of client relationships, employee disclosed interests, board affiliations, and related-party structures, applying entity resolution to catch indirect relationships such as shared beneficial ownership or family affiliations, and routes any potential conflict to the ethics or general counsel office for adjudication before the relationship proceeds
The agent triggers when a new matter, client engagement, executive hire, or significant vendor relationship is entered into the relevant intake system, then extracts the names of all involved parties and known affiliated entities. It queries a maintained conflicts database covering current and former client relationships, employee and board member disclosed financial interests, and related-party structures, applying entity resolution and relationship-graph analysis powered by an LLM to identify both direct name matches and indirect relationships such as shared ownership, family ties, or overlapping board seats. Potential conflicts are scored by severity and routed to the ethics office or general counsel with supporting relationship evidence for adjudication, and cleared checks are logged with a clearance certificate.
Capture Relationship Details
- Extract all parties involved in the new matter, hire, or relationship
- Identify known affiliated entities and related parties
- Determine the type of check required based on relationship category
- Queue the check against the conflicts database
Screen Against Conflicts Database
- Query current and former client relationship records
- Check employee and board member disclosed financial interests
- Apply entity resolution to detect indirect relationships
- Score potential conflicts by severity and relationship proximity
Route for Adjudication
- Compile potential conflicts with supporting relationship evidence
- Route to ethics office or general counsel for review
- Present recommended mitigation options where applicable
- Log adjudication decision and any conditions imposed
Certify and Maintain Records
- Issue a clearance certificate for approved relationships
- Update the conflicts database with the new relationship record
- Schedule periodic re-screening for long-running engagements
- Maintain historical conflict check records for audit purposes