Why it matters
A deal with a shell company or one already in insolvency means money you will not recover, and a tax risk on top. Checking before the deal is due diligence — but done by hand it gets skipped, because working through registries for every counterparty is slow and nobody enjoys it.
What the AI checks
| Check | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| Registry status | active, in liquidation, struck off |
| Insolvency | signs and stages of proceedings |
| Directors | disqualification, or a director listed at dozens of companies |
| Registered address | a mass-registration address, a classic shell-company marker |
| Age and history | a company created recently, specifically for this deal |
| Litigation record | the volume and nature of claims against them |
Where automation stops
- •Interpreting an ambiguous registry entry — a lawyer’s call,
- •Weighing a risk against the commercial upside — a business decision,
- •Anything requiring documents outside public registries,
- •The final decision to sign, which is never the model’s.
The contract itself is the other half of the picture — see how an AI reviews a contract. Both together are what the AI Lawyer covers, and running it inside your own perimeter is in on-premise AI for law firms.
This is an overview, not legal advice — the legal assessment comes from a qualified lawyer.
Frequently asked questions
Why check a counterparty if we have a contract?
A contract does not help if the other side is a shell company or already heading into insolvency — there is nobody left to recover the money from. Checking before the deal is due diligence that reduces both commercial and tax risk.
Does AI replace a lawyer in due diligence?
It takes the routine — pulling data from public registries and a first assessment of the risks. The legal conclusions and the decision to trade stay with a person. It is acceleration, not replacement.
How current is the data?
As current as the registries themselves. The value of automation is that the check is actually performed on every counterparty rather than skipped because it is tedious — a stale check nobody ran is worth nothing.