Corporate and M&A · Corporate and M&A team, deal partner, paralegal
Due diligence, a per-document red-flag grid
A data room ahead of a Series B investment is turned into a table: documents down the side, questions across the top, one cell per intersection, each carrying the quote it came from.
- Agents
- First draft
- A filled grid across the whole room in one run, unattended; an Executive Brief follows from the same matter the same day.
- Steps
- 6
The problem
Step 01 of 06
Add the room to the matter
Forty-two files convert to clean text: customer contracts, the NDA, leases, the loan agreement, employment contracts and the board minute pack.
Step 02 of 06
Start from a seeded playbook
The M&A Due Diligence per document playbook arrives with eight columns already written, and a firm-specific column can be added, such as drag-along and consent thresholds.
Step 03 of 06
Run the grid
Forty-two documents across eight columns fill as the review runs, unattended.
Step 04 of 06
Read the exceptions
Each filled cell opens on Verified against source with the cited quote. Where a question does not apply, the cell reads Not addressed rather than guessing.
Step 05 of 06
Export and summarise
The Due Diligence Agent runs an Executive Brief ranking the findings by what could delay or reprice the deal, with a consent schedule and a disclosure schedule.
Step 06 of 06
Sign off
The partner reads the brief, opens the grid on the exceptions, ticks the action items and signs off.
What comes back
A document, not a transcript.
- A completed grid with a source quote behind every filled cell and Not addressed where a question does not apply.
- The jurisdiction and governing law mismatch in the NDA, cross-checked against the board minutes.
- A change-of-control provision flagged in a customer contract, with the consent question named for the client.
- An Executive Brief ranking findings for the board, with a consent schedule and a disclosure schedule.
What it does not do
- It does not fill a cell to look complete. A document that does not address a question returns Not addressed.
- Documents come in by upload today; DMS connectors for SharePoint, OneDrive, iManage and NetDocuments are catalogue tiles, not live integrations.
- It does not decide whether a consent threshold is met; it names the question for the deal team to confirm.