Why Conflict Checking Matters
A missed conflict of interest can result in professional discipline, malpractice liability, and disqualification from a matter mid-proceedings. The cost of a thorough check is minutes; the cost of a missed conflict can be years.
What to Check
At minimum, run a search against: (1) the new client's full legal name and all known trading names, (2) every adverse party named in the matter, (3) related corporate entities (parent companies, subsidiaries), and (4) the referring party, if any. Courts have held that a firm's conflict obligation extends to entities in the same corporate family.
The Three-Party Problem
The hardest conflicts to catch are triangular: you represented Party A against Party B five years ago, and now Party A is adverse to Party C — who is asking you to represent them today. A name-only search misses this. Your conflict system needs to track matter relationships, not just client names.
Timing
Run the conflict check before you accept a new instruction, before you open a new matter for an existing client, and again before you appear on behalf of a client in a new jurisdiction. Some firms run checks again when new parties join an existing matter.
Documenting the Search
Save the conflict check result — including the date, the search terms used, and who ran it — to the matter file. If a conflict is later alleged, you need to show that a reasonable search was conducted at the right time.
Using Gavel for Conflict Checks
From the Conflicts page in your dashboard, enter the party name and click Check. Gavel searches your entire matter history and flags any existing relationships with a risk level (Clear, Review, or Conflict). The check is logged automatically to the matter when you proceed.