Legal due diligence / audit of companies and real estate

Simply put, the carrying out of legal due diligence of companies and real estate aims at protecting the buyer against buying a pig in a poke. Legal due diligence (also called legal audit or legal analysis) is conducted not only to identify the content of the poke but also to gain extra knowledge as to how to deal with its content.

The conducting of legal due diligence is a sign of business care and prudence in all transactions aimed at engaging in companies or acquiring assets of material value, such as real estate or businesses. Due diligence gives buyers a realistic picture of the subject of the transaction and identifies both risks and threats related to the legal status, e.g. problems with major contracts, encumbrances on assets or need for taking various restrictions on free contract formulation into consideration. Often, it can also give you a negotiating advantage. It allows you to properly determine all transaction terms, and not only the financial ones.

We conduct both complete and partial legal audits of companies and real estate, resulting in a due diligence report. Depending on arrangements made, the report may only identify legal risks and present methods to avoid such risks or solve problems, or it can also present in a concise manner the overall picture of the entire legal status of the subject of the transaction. Our analysis is each time tailored to individual case requirements, i.e. specifics of the subject under analysis, purposes which it is to serve, and firstly, the Client’s needs and expectations.

Our experience includes legal audits in which the risk identified by us had an effect on the final transaction price and due diligence resulting in cancellation of a given transaction or making it conditional on the elimination of the identified irregularities.

It is reasonable to carry out legal due diligence of companies or real estate also to enable the seller to prepare for the transaction and negotiations, to facilitate the process of change of managers (opening report) or to legally verify the entrepreneur's business operations in whole or in part.