You’ve been assigned a major task—your firm has put you in charge of conducting due diligence for an upcoming merger. Your work will be vital to the deal’s success, as well as to your firm’s relationship with its client. Digging into a potential acquisition, and spotting any red flags in the company’s operations is an essential job for a lawyer.
However, the amount of work that due diligence entails can make unsure about where to begin. The process may seem overwhelming. First things first: you need an M&A due diligence checklist.
Don’t attempt to do eight things at once—without a diligence process structure, this means you could go astray in eight different ways. With a checklist as your roadmap, you will know what you need to look for, how much time you have to find it, and who to send it to. Your job becomes far more manageable.
Comprehensive M&A due diligence checklist steps
This checklist covers all the major categories of steps needed for both public and private M&A due diligence.
- Handle preliminary matters
- Assemble the due diligence team
- Submit the due diligence request
- Distribute and organize materials
- Communicate and report due diligence findings
- Review key sources of information
- Determine whether specialist review is necessary