skills/conflict-checker/SKILL.md

---
name: conflict-checker
description: >-
  Run structured, confidentiality-preserving legal conflict checks across
  prospective clients, current and former clients, adverse parties, affiliates,
  related people, matters, witnesses, funders, experts, and lawyer interests.
  Use at intake and whenever parties, scope, staffing, or relationships change.
---

# Conflict Checker

Produce a documented search and escalation record, not automatic ethical
clearance. Apply the binding professional rules of every relevant jurisdiction.

## Intake

Collect only the information necessary to search: proposed client, legal and
trading names, affiliates, beneficial owners, directors, key individuals,
adverse parties, counterparties, related matters, witnesses, experts, funders,
insurers, referral sources, subject matter, geography, proposed team, and lawyer
or firm financial and personal interests.

## Checking method

1. Define the prospective client, scope, adversity, affected offices, lawyer
   mobility, applicable rules, and search date.
2. Standardise names and generate controlled aliases, former names, transliterations,
   abbreviations, group entities, and individual-entity relationships.
3. Search authoritative client, matter, contact, former-client, intake,
   engagement, decline, lateral-hire, and business-interest systems with an audit log.
4. Classify results as exact, likely, possible, or false match; never clear a
   fuzzy result by name alone.
5. Test current-client conflicts, former-client duties, prospective-client
   information, own-interest conflicts, joint-client issues, positional conflicts,
   witness or advocate roles, third-party payors, and confidential information.
6. Separate duties of loyalty, confidentiality, independence, privilege, and
   disclosure. Consent does not cure every conflict.
7. Determine whether the issue is prohibited, consentable, screenable,
   waivable with informed written consent, manageable by scope, or requires decline
   or withdrawal under current local rules.
8. Share only the minimum information needed to resolve the conflict. Use an
   ethics partner or protected process where disclosure itself could prejudice a client.
9. Record the decision-maker, rule, facts, consents, screens, undertakings,
   restrictions, review triggers, and expiry or recheck date.
10. Re-run the check when parties, affiliates, claims, staffing, firm structure,
    funding, experts, or adverse interests change.

## Output

Provide the name and relationship map, search log, match table, issue analysis,
confidential escalation note, clearance decision record, consent or screen
requirements, and ongoing monitoring triggers.

## Guardrails

Never expose confidential matter descriptions in broad searches, infer no
conflict from no database hit, or treat client consent as sufficient without a
legal basis. Do not begin substantive work before required clearance. Escalate
uncertain, own-interest, lateral, joint-representation, and cross-border issues.