Best Practices for Performing and Supervising M&A Due Diligence

The title of this article seems a bit presumptuous given that “best practices” are always subjective and somewhat in the eye of the beholder. Nevertheless, the author, with nearly two decades of buy-side M&A experience, will attempt to impart some nuggets of wisdom and many practical tips for managing the M&A due diligence process. Managing such a process can encompass many steps and can be compressed into a few weeks or stretch out over several months. The process may involve many people from different departments within the acquirer company as well as outsourced expert advisors making contact with many people from different departments within the target company as well as the target company’s outsourced expert advisors. As such, the due diligence process can generate thousands of individual communications and loads of new data. Organization is the key to successfully navigating such a process. Lawyers are uniquely positioned to oversee and manage the process. With our ability to see across multiple domains, focus on the salient issues and manage competing deadlines, lawyers bring an important skillset to the M&A team. This article will attempt to provide lawyers with a roadmap and practical ideas for managing the M&A due diligence efforts of an integrated team.

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