Conflict check software for law firms that catches the misspelled name

A conflict check is only as good as the spelling of the name you typed. Kowalski entered years ago as Kowalsky, a former client who has since married, a company that trades under another name: an exact-match search misses every one of them. A missed conflict tends to surface late, after work has been done and confidences shared, which is when it is hardest to fix.

What the rules ask

Under ABA Model Rule 1.7, a lawyer may not take on a representation that involves a concurrent conflict of interest. That covers a client directly adverse to another client, and a significant risk that the lawyer’s duties to another client, a former client or a third person, or the lawyer’s own interests, will materially limit the work. Some of those conflicts can proceed when the rule’s conditions are met, including each affected client’s informed consent, confirmed in writing.

Rule 1.9 covers former clients. A lawyer who represented someone may not later represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter where that person’s interests are materially adverse to the former client, unless the former client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing. Rule 1.10 extends this to the firm: while lawyers are associated in a firm, none of them may knowingly take a representation that any one of them would be barred from alone, with exceptions the rule sets out. Prospective clients are covered separately by Rule 1.18.

Your state’s versions of these rules govern. Deciding whether a hit is a conflict is a legal judgment, and the software’s part is making sure the facts reach the person making it.

What Coil does

• Search across everything a name touches. Contacts, parties, notes, messages, documents and leads, in one search.
• Fuzzy matching. Exact matches and close spellings both come back, and diacritics are folded, so José and Jose find each other.
• Alternate names. Maiden names and DBAs are stored on the contact and searched with it.
• Every role a name has held. If someone was a client on one matter and adverse on another, the result shows both roles, so you see the relationship and not only the name.
• A gate at intake. Converting a lead into a client and matter runs the check first and cannot skip it.
• A recorded waiver. If you go ahead despite a hit, the waiver is recorded with your reason and an audit row, so the decision and who made it are on file.
• Your history comes with you. The importer brings contacts and aliases across from a Clio or MyCase export, so the first check in Coil can see the clients you had before it.

What Coil does not do

Coil does not decide whether a hit is a conflict. It shows the matches and the roles, and the judgment, the consent letters and any screening are yours. It can only search what is in Coil: matters from a previous firm, or a lateral hire’s former clients, need to be entered or imported before the check can see them. Fuzzy matching is also a trade. A very common surname brings back more results to read through than an unusual one, which is the price of catching the misspelled name.

Why it matters in a small firm

A small firm often runs conflict checks from memory, because the founding lawyer remembers every client. That works until the firm has been open long enough for memory to slip, or until a second lawyer joins with a client list of their own. Every name entered into Coil, from the first lead onward, becomes something the next check can find, including prospects who never hired you. Coil is free during the beta, and beta firms keep founding pricing when paid plans start.

Last checked October 28, 2026.