Document handling
Encrypted transfer and storage, access limited to named consultants, and destruction on request at the end of the agreed retention window. We never place client documents in consumer file-sharing tools.
How we work
Four stages, dated deliverables, one principal accountable from first call to handover.
The engagement
What happens, week by week
The timeline below describes a typical fixed-fee assessment. Remediation projects and retainers extend it, but the first three weeks look the same in almost every engagement.
Week 0 — Scoping call (no charge)
Thirty minutes by phone or in the Boonton office. We ask what triggered the enquiry, what documents exist, who owns them internally, and what your deadline is. You leave the call with an honest answer about whether we should be involved at all.
Week 0 — Written proposal
Within two business days you receive a scope, a fixed fee, a delivery date and a list of exactly what we need from you. Nothing starts until you sign it.
Week 1 — Intake
Documents arrive through encrypted transfer. We read everything, including the drafts and the superseded versions, because that is where drift shows. We hold one 60-minute interview per functional owner.
Week 2 — Assessment drafting
Findings are written up against a standard structure: what exists, what is current, what is missing, what exposes you first, and what it would cost in effort to fix. No filler, no maturity-model radar charts.
Week 3 — Findings walkthrough
A working session, ideally in person, with the people who will own the fixes. We take corrections on the spot and reissue a final version within three business days.
Week 4+ — Remediation or handover
Either we do the rebuild on a separate fixed-fee scope, or we hand you the plan and step away. Both are normal outcomes and we price so that either is a reasonable choice.
Working standards
Details that decide whether an engagement is pleasant
Communication
One named principal, one email thread per workstream, and a written weekly status note every Friday. Response within one business day, always.
Change control
If discovery reveals the scope was wrong, we stop and re-quote in writing. We do not issue surprise invoices, and we do not silently narrow the work to stay inside a fee.
Working with your counsel
We brief your attorneys rather than duplicating them, and we mark clearly in every deliverable which items require licensed legal review before adoption.
Internal ownership
Every deliverable names an internal owner and a review date. Work that has no owner when we leave will be stale within a year, and we say so.
After handover
Thirty days of follow-up questions are included at no charge. Beyond that, clients either move to a retainer or come back when something changes. Both are fine.
Tell us what is keeping counsel awake
A 30-minute scoping call, no charge and no obligation. We will tell you honestly whether this is work we should take, work you can handle internally, or work that belongs with outside counsel.