Partners
We work alongside the advisers you already trust.
Most of our engagements begin with someone else's phone call: outside counsel in the middle of a dispute, an insurer handling a claim, a responder two days into an incident. We are built to join that team, answer the question open sources can answer and leave the client relationship where it belongs.
Who we work with
Six kinds of partner, one division of labor.
Partners bring the client, the context and their own expertise. We bring the open-source investigation and the evidence behind it. Neither side does the other's job.
Law firms
Asset tracing, witness and party research, identification of anonymous actors and preservation of online evidence, structured to protect privilege.
Insurers and brokers
Verification of extortion and breach claims for cyber policies, organized fraud investigations and threat assessment for insured principals.
Incident response firms
The external half of an incident: what the actor is claiming, what is really for sale, who they are and what they have done before.
Protective security providers
Threat assessment, identification of threat authors and verified event intelligence for the teams responsible for moving and guarding people.
Forensic accountants and advisers
Ownership research, counterparty integrity and the public-record evidence that supports a financial investigation or a transaction.
Compliance and audit firms
Sub-tier supplier mapping and screening matches worked through to a conclusion, where a program needs evidence and not just a questionnaire.
Ways of working
Three arrangements, chosen by what the matter needs.
The arrangement is agreed at the start of each matter and written into the engagement letter, so that reporting lines, privilege and confidentiality are clear before any work begins.
Introduction
You introduce a client with a question we can answer. The client engages us directly, and you are kept informed to the extent the client wishes.
- Client contracts with Aldervane
- No fee passes between us
Instruction through you
You engage us on your client's behalf and direct the work. This is the usual arrangement with counsel, and it keeps our work product under privilege.
- Reporting to you, as instructed
- Structured to protect privilege
Joint response
We work beside your team during a live incident or crisis, each on our own part of the problem, with a shared rhythm of updates to the client.
- One briefing cycle for the client
- Clear ownership of each workstream
Ground rules
Rules that protect the client, the partner and the finding.
A finding is only useful if nobody can say it was shaped by who introduced the work. These rules apply to every partner without exception.
- No referral feesWe do not pay for introductions and we do not accept payment for making them. Recommendations run on merit in both directions.
- Our name on our workReports carry our name, our confidence language and our evidence annex. We do not issue findings for others to present as their own.
- The same screeningReferred matters pass through the same ethics and legal checks as any other. We decline roughly one request in seven, whoever sends it.
- Independent conclusionsPartners can question our reasoning and ask for more work. They cannot change a finding or the confidence attached to it.
- Your client stays your clientWe do not approach a partner's clients for other work. Further engagements come through you or at the client's own request.
- Conflicts checked firstEvery new matter is checked against current and recent engagements before we hear the details, and we say at once if we cannot act.
What partners can expect
Ready before the matter arrives.
Urgent work cannot wait for paperwork. Standing partners agree terms, confidentiality and secure channels in advance, so an investigation can start on the day it is needed.
- A named partner lead who knows your practice and your clients' sectors
- Terms and confidentiality agreed in advance
- A secure channel already in place for instructions and files
- Urgent matters accepted at any hour, with a first assessment within 24 hours
- Reports structured for the audience you name: court, regulator, underwriter or board
- Briefings for your team on what open sources can and cannot establish
Two halves of one picture
Responders establish what happened inside the network. We establish what the actor is claiming outside it, and whether the two agree. In one recent matter, that comparison showed a claimed breach to be recycled data within 31 hours.
Read the caseEvidence written for a tribunal
Our investigators are used to explaining their methods to judges, arbitrators and opposing experts, and to having every step tested.
Legal and litigation workQuestions
Partner FAQ
Do you pay or accept referral fees?
No, in either direction. An introduction that is paid for raises a question about every finding that follows it, and we would rather not have to answer that question in front of a court or a regulator.
Can you work under our engagement letter?
Yes. Counsel and other advisers often engage us on a client's behalf and direct the work. Our standards and our evidence handling apply whoever holds the contract.
Will you take instructions that limit what you report?
You can set the scope of the question. You cannot set the answer. If the evidence within scope points somewhere unexpected, the report will say so.
Do you use partners to do your casework?
No. All collection and analysis is carried out by Aldervane employees on Aldervane infrastructure. Where a matter needs skills we do not have, such as network forensics or protection on the ground, we say so and work beside the firm that provides them.
How does a partnership start?
Usually with one matter. If you already work with an Aldervane investigator, speak to them. Otherwise the steps on our engagement page apply to partners as they do to clients, beginning with a confidential introduction and a scoping call.
Start an engagement
Bring us the question nobody else could answer.
Tell us what you need to know and why. A senior investigator will scope it with you, tell you candidly what open sources can and cannot establish, and propose a plan with a fixed fee and a firm timeline.