Know who matters to the conflict check.
Parties, affiliates, owners, directors, counsel, experts, witnesses, funders, appointing bodies and other material actors may need to be included.
CONFLICT CLEARANCE
Identify.
Search.
Disclose.
Assess.
Clear.
Continue.
PARTY SET
KNOWN
AFFILIATES
CHECKED
RELATIONSHIPS
SEARCHED
DISCLOSURE
RECORDED
STATUS
CLEARED / OPEN
APPOINTMENT / CONFLICT CHECK & CLEARANCE
Do not send the sensitive file before you know whether the professional can receive it.
Conflict Check & Clearance is the appointment-stage control that sits between professional discovery and substantive engagement. It identifies the actor set, checks relevant professional and personal relationships, records disclosures, applies the governing conflict framework and produces a clearance status that can be revisited if parties, affiliates, counsel or material circumstances change.
CLEARANCE IS MORE THAN DISCLOSURE
A disclosure tells the parties a fact. Clearance records what happens after the fact is assessed.
Use records proportionate to the appointment.
Professional history, organisational relationships, prior appointments, financial interests and known personal relationships should be checked as appropriate.
Surface relevant circumstances factually.
Disclosure should identify relationship, timing, scale and current status without pre-deciding the consequence.
Apply the rules that actually govern.
Contract, institutional rules, applicable law, professional standards and the selected Neutral role may all shape the assessment.
Record whether appointment may proceed.
Clear, clear subject to recorded disclosure, further review required, objection open or do not appoint should remain distinguishable.
Reopen the question when facts change.
New affiliates, counsel, repeat appointments or commercial relationships can change the conflict position after acceptance.
CLEARANCE BEFORE DISCLOSURE OF THE MATTER
Use a staged intake whenever the matter is sensitive.
Begin with enough party and actor information to run conflicts without disclosing unnecessary merits, strategy, privileged material or confidential commercial detail.
LIVE CLEARANCE WORKSPACE
Build the actor set, record the screening result and generate a clearance note.
CLEARANCE NOT RECORDED
Generate the note after actor and screening information is complete.
CLEARANCE PRESSURE TESTS
The highest-risk appointment errors often happen before the Neutral has formally accepted.
A detailed confidential memo is sent before conflicts are checked.
Use staged intake. A proposed Neutral should not receive unnecessary matter detail before the actor set is screened and the professional confirms it is safe to proceed.
The professional discloses a relationship and everybody assumes that means disqualification.
Disclosure and consequence are separate questions. Apply the governing framework and record the assessment rather than penalising transparency automatically.
An affiliate becomes a real party later.
Reopen clearance. A check is only as good as the actor set on which it was based.
A party consents informally by silence.
Where consent or waiver has legal or procedural significance, record it through the method required by the governing framework rather than relying on assumption.
CLEARANCE RECORD
Every defensible clearance should answer six questions.
WHO
Which proposed professional was checked?
AGAINST WHOM
Which actor set was included?
WHEN
What date did the check reflect?
WHAT
Which material circumstances were identified?
RESULT
What clearance status was reached?
CONTINUE
What later change should reopen the check?
PROFESSIONAL DISCOVERY
Current public professional records
Only currently published professional records are shown.
PUBLIC PROFESSIONAL RECORD / Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hans Bousie
Arbitrator & Mediator
mediationarbitrationAviationBanking and FinanceEducation
Published record: Hans is partner of bureau Brandeis. Internationally, Hans specializes in cross border antitrust damage litigation. His excellent skills in combining market economics with legal frameworks beef up his in depth…
PUBLIC PROFESSIONAL RECORD / Toronto, Canada
Mana Hosseini
Arbitrator & Mediator
mediationarbitrationBanking and Finance
Published record: Mana Hosseini is well respected in the Start up- Visa sector and affiliated with a number of accomplished immigration lawyers. As the founder and chief executive officer of Bay Street…
PUBLIC PROFESSIONAL RECORD / Verona, Italy
Gilead Cooper Q.C.
Arbitrator & Mediator
mediationarbitrationBanking and Finance
Published record: “He clearly relishes getting his teeth into cases.” He has “an incredible mind”, “he knows his stuff inside and out, and gets it right first time around”. Further, “he is…
PUBLIC PROFESSIONAL RECORD / Orlando, United States
Gary Salzman
Arbitrator & Mediator
mediationarbitrationReal Estate and Property DisputesConstructionEngineering and Infrastructure Disputes
Published record: In addition, Gary is a certified circuit civil and appellate mediator as well as a trained and qualified arbitrator. He is a member of the American Arbitration Association\'s employment, commercial,…
NEXT APPOINTMENT STEPS
Clearance is one control inside the larger appointment journey.
IDENTIFY
Conflicts depend on the actual actor set, not the matter title.
DISCLOSE
Material facts should be surfaced before acceptance, not discovered afterwards.
CLEAR
The clearance record should show why appointment could proceed.
CONFLICT ARCHITECTURE
Conflicts become manageable when actor data, disclosure and assessment stay distinct.
A strong system carries the original requirement forward while separating public evidence, conflicts, authority and matter administration.
ACTORS
Who must be screened?
Parties, affiliates, counsel, experts, witnesses, funders and other material actors should be identified proportionately to the appointment.
TIMING
What can be shared before clearance?
The first check should use enough identity information to screen conflicts without unnecessarily exposing the merits.
DISCLOSURE
What circumstance has been surfaced?
A disclosure is factual information for assessment and should not be treated automatically as disqualification.
ASSESSMENT
Which rules and independence test apply?
The appointment framework, applicable law, professional standards and party expectations should be understood before clearance is decided.
REFRESH
What change re-opens the check?
New parties, affiliates, counsel, funders, experts, scope or role can require the conflict question to be revisited.
CLEARANCE PATH
Clearance should advance in stages before substantive material moves.
Each stage should create the minimum information the next stage needs and preserve why the appointment advanced.
APPOINTMENT PATH
Identify. Search. Disclose. Assess. Clear. Continue.
Conflict control is strongest when information is staged and each step records what was known at the time.
01
Build the actor set before sending sensitive material
Provide the professional with names and relationships necessary for screening while keeping the detailed merits file back.
02
Run a proportionate professional check
The professional should search the records and relationships reasonably relevant to the appointment.
03
Record any disclosure factually
State the relationship or circumstance without turning disclosure language into an automatic conclusion.
04
Assess against the actual appointment framework
Consider independence, impartiality, professional rules, party consent where appropriate and any non-waivable restrictions.
05
Record the clearance outcome and conditions
Clear, clear subject to disclosure, further review required or do not proceed should each be distinguishable.
06
Refresh when the matter changes
The appointment team should know which new actor, relationship, scope or role change requires conflict review to reopen.
DISCLOSURE BOUNDARY
A disclosure is information for judgment—not an automatic outcome.
The system should make it harder to confuse discovery, clearance, standing and authority with one another.
THE APPOINTMENT SYSTEM SHOULD
Protect the appointment before substantive disclosure.
- Use staged intake.
- Record the actor universe checked.
- Separate disclosure from clearance.
- Preserve the assessment decision.
- Create explicit refresh triggers.
THE APPOINTMENT SYSTEM SHOULD NOT
Treat conflict review as a one-time checkbox.
- Do not send the detailed merits file before screening.
- Do not assume every disclosure disqualifies the professional.
- Do not rely on silence as party consent.
- Do not ignore new affiliates, counsel, experts or funders.
- Do not let role changes proceed without considering fresh independence questions.
PROFESSIONAL RECORD
Verify the professional record separately from the live conflict position.
No public directory can pre-clear a live matter. Conflict clearance is matter-specific and should occur after discovery but before unnecessary sensitive disclosure.
CLEARANCE PRINCIPLE