The figures, rebuilt from the record.

• A securities matter turns on whether a disclosure was accurate or complete.

• A dispute over a transaction turns on the target’s reported results.

• An investigation needs figures rebuilt from the general ledger and transaction records.

• A matter involves Irish, U.K., or other common law reporting regimes alongside U.S. rules.

• Reconstruction.

  Reported figures rebuilt from the general ledger, bank records, and transaction documents.

• Measurement against the rules.

  What was disclosed compared with what the accounting standards, the securities laws, and the listing rules required.

• Quantification.

  The difference between what was reported and what should have been, and its effect on value.

• Cross-border analysis.

  How the common law company regimes of Ireland and the United Kingdom, and their securities rules derived from European Union law, compare with U.S. law on the facts of the matter.

1. 01

   Step 1: A confidential call.

   You describe the matter; the firm says whether it can help.

2. 02

   Step 2: A conflict check.

   Before it hears anything confidential, the firm confirms that no fund or account it manages holds a position in the company, that it has published no research on it, and that it is not engaged with it as an investor.

3. 03

   Step 3: An engagement letter.

   Scope, fees (fixed or hourly, never contingent on a transaction closing), and confidentiality terms are set in writing.

4. 04

   Step 4: The examination.

   The firm works from the company’s record and the documents the engagement gives it access to.

5. 05

   Step 5: Findings.

   A written account of what the record shows, the questions an outside reader would ask, and what would answer them.

6. 06

   Step 6: Putting it right.

   Where the engagement covers it, the firm works with the client to carry the findings through.

The firm works under counsel’s direction, and counsel directs the legal analysis and the position taken.  Whether privilege or work-product protection applies to the firm’s work is a question for counsel.  The firm declines matters concerning any company in which a fund or account it manages holds a position, or on which it has published research.

Hypothetical.  These describe the kinds of matters the firm takes on, not any actual client or engagement.

1. A revenue question.

   Counsel for plaintiffs in a securities action needs to know when a software company’s revenue recognition departed from its stated policy.  The firm rebuilds the quarterly figures from contract-level records and identifies the quarter in which the departure began.

2. An earn-out dispute.

   Counsel for a seller disputes the buyer’s calculation of an earn-out.  The firm rebuilds the target’s results under the accounting policies the purchase agreement specified and quantifies the difference.

3. Two regimes.

   Counsel in a matter involving an Irish-incorporated company listed in the United States needs to know which disclosure obligations applied and when.  The firm sets the company’s filings against both regimes and identifies where they diverge on the facts.