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Viewing the Outside Counsel database
Who is this article for?
Users who want to learn about the Outside Counsel database.
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1. General overview
- The Audit Analytics Outside Counsel database identifies the legal counsel for SEC registrants.
- It combines information from annual reports, websites, emails, and phone calls, along with securities registration and litigation databases.
- Public registrants engage outside legal counsel for various roles, such as securities, mergers & acquisitions, taxes, and insurance.
- This includes all '33 and '34 Act filers as required by the SEC.
2. Common uses
- Search by CIK or ticker for corporate law firm representation.
- Filters for various corporate engagements and litigation matters.
- Analyse outside counsel by law firm and litigation type.
- Support business development with access to undisclosed outside counsel.
- Identify law firms specialising in areas like Securities Registrations or IPOs.
The Outside Counsel database is accessible online, via WRDS, and as a data feed [Feed64] with a subscription.
- Saved Search Alert: No
- Daily Summary Email: No
3. Collection methodology
- This dataset highlights the latest activity for a specific law firm.
- Alongside General Counsel data, it includes relevant counsel information from Audit Analytics legal registrations, comment letters, and litigation datasets.
- This is not historical data; it reflects the most recent known activity from various sources.
- For a specific law firm/company relationship, the latest date may date back several years.
- Data is sourced from the following forms: 424, B3, 424B4, S-8 POS, S-3, S-4, S-1, S-11, 425
4. Searching
The Outside Counsel search page offers the following filters:
| Name | Description | Data Dictionary Field(s) | Sort By? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Filter by Law Firms | Filter by law firms | Law Firm Name | Yes |
| Search by Ticker or CIK Code | Filter results to a specific population | Ticker CIK Code | Yes |
| Market Index | Filter by principal exchange | Is in S&P 500 Is in Russell 2000 | No |
| Corporate Engagement | Filters by role the counsel has with the company | Corporate Taxonomy | No |
| Litigation Matter | Filter by type of litigation | Litigation Taxonomy | No |
| Market Cap | Filter by a range of market capitalization as of MR market cap date | MR Market Cap Date MR Market Cap | Yes |
| Revenue | Filter by a range of most recent TTM revenue | MR Revenue ($) | Yes |
| Search Industries | Filter by companies’ industry(s) | SIC Code NAICS Code | No |
| Company Location | Filter by current business address location(s) | Company State Company Country Company County Company City | No |
| Activity Date | Filter by most recent known engagement date acting as outside counsel for corporate or litigation matters | Most Recent Activity Date | Yes |
5. Results
You can view the results at the bottom of this page. The following resources are available via hyperlinks:
- Download the Outside Counsel Data Dictionary: Contains definitions for all CSV fields.
- Download CSV files of results: Structured data export for further analysis.
- Company profiles overview: Summary of company-level insights.
- Law firm overview: Summary of law firm performance and engagement.