Principal, process, and the boundary we hold

When a matter has gone operationally sideways, the temptation is to hand it to someone who will do a bit of everything. That is how privilege problems are created, and how a lawyer ends up explaining to a client why the person they brought in made a new problem.

The clean version is narrower. Counsel holds the strategy and every legal judgment. We hold the file: the chronology, the documents, the reporting, the operational discipline that makes the strategy executable. One boundary, stated at the outset, held without exception.

In a deteriorating matter, nearly every number reaching a decision-maker was produced by a party with an interest in how it is read. That information gets discounted — by credit committees, by examiners, and by courts — regardless of whether it is accurate.

AEEA is engaged to hold the file itself. One chronology. One reporting cadence. One version of the record that lenders, counsel, owners and courts can all work from. We do not advocate, take positions, or act for a side.

We run a conflicts check before we scope any engagement, including on the counterparty and the lender. Independence that is asserted rather than checked is not independence.

• The record was deliberately corrupted. Reconstructing a falsified record is not reconstruction. That is a matter for counsel.
• We have touched the other side. Checked before scope, every time.
• What is wanted is advocacy. We do not take positions. A party who needs their case argued needs a lawyer, and we will say so.
• What is wanted is legal advice. We do not practise law and do not give it.
• The timing has passed. Some records cannot be reconstructed to a standard worth paying for. Saying so at the outset is cheaper for everyone than discovering it in month three.

1. 1
   Screening call — 30 minutes, no cost. You describe the matter; we ask what we need to ask. A conflicts check runs before it.
2. 2
   Position analysis. A scoped diagnostic at a fixed fee agreed in advance. What the record currently supports, what is missing, and what can still be established. Turnaround is typically 24 to 48 hours from receipt of materials.
3. 3
   Scope, or stop. If the diagnostic says nothing should be done, that is the recommendation, and it is a real outcome.
4. 4
   Execution. Across the six disciplines, against a reporting cadence fixed at the outset, with a named individual accountable for each line.

Engagements are typically initiated through paid diagnostic work. Outcomes depend entirely on the facts, documents, and posture of each matter. Nothing on this page is a prediction or guarantee of result.