FirmLedge

For estates, receivers, assignees and their advisers

A closed company's records may be a recoverable asset.

AI developers license de-identified operating and financial records from closed and closing companies. FirmLedge identifies what survives, who controls it and which buyers want it, runs the process, and shows you every proposal before you decide.

Check whether the records fitHow a license would run

No files, logins or confidential details at any step before a written agreement. Not a valuation or an offer.

The one-page records assessment

The first step is work we do, not work you do.

We prepare a one-page records assessment for your matter from the docket, notices and public filings. Your team does not need to pull anything for it. For a company outside a court process, we work from your description instead.

It is prepared at no charge. It is not a valuation and not an offer, and it is for the file either way.

You get an initial reply within two business days, and the one-page assessment within five business days of a description we can work from, or a note on what is missing.

Already have the assessment from an email? The fit check below is the fastest way to answer it.

See a fictional example of the assessment

The assessmentWhat it covers
the public record
What the docket, notices and public filings show about the company and the matter
likely records
What the records likely include, each item a question for the inventory, not a claim
buyers
Which buyers hold written requests that fit
your estate type
How a license would run for your estate type
your part
Thirty minutes with whoever knows the systems
what stays out
The material excluded from the start
who pays
Who pays FirmLedge, and what is shown with each proposal

How it works for an estate

How a sale or license would run.

Some AI developers pay for real business records, such as ledgers, invoices, work orders, email and system exports, and use them to build and test software. These records may be an asset of the estate you administer.

  1. Who pays FirmLedge

    Where a buyer engages FirmLedge to source records, the buyer pays FirmLedge and the estate pays no FirmLedge fee. FirmLedge is paid by one side only.

    You see all offers we receive for the agreed package before you decide, with our compensation and who pays FirmLedge disclosed alongside them. The work, our role and compensation are agreed in writing before engagement.

  2. An unnamed profile, then proposals side by side

    With your permission, we describe the records to several buyers without naming the company: which systems, how many years and rough counts. No files and no logins are shared.

    Any proposal we receive comes to you in the same format: price, package, permitted uses, exclusivity, de-identification method and the buyer's fee to FirmLedge. A buyer may ask for a narrow sample or schema review before proposing terms. You decide whether to provide one, under NDA and agreed access terms.

  3. You decide

    You choose whether to proceed, which buyer, which records, what uses are allowed and whether any buyer gets exclusivity. Nothing happens without your written approval and any court or creditor approval your counsel says is needed. What applies depends on the estate type, set out below, and we provide the information needed for any motion, notice or report, including our fee arrangement.

  4. De-identification before use

    Personal and identifying information is removed or replaced under a process you approve before evaluation, training, product use or any other agreed use.

    If a buyer performs extraction or de-identification, raw-record access requires a separately approved handling agreement limited to those steps. Any other use requires separate release approval and agreed terms.

    Removing names does not guarantee anonymity. Distinctive figures can still identify a business or person.

    Originals stay with you, and you keep whatever you must retain for tax, payroll, safety or court purposes. The license limits the buyer's uses and bars re-identification and contact with employees or customers.

  5. What we will ask you for

    Not the records themselves: your appointing order, any sale procedures, the lender's position on its lien, the privacy policies in effect and a list of systems.

Approvals by estate typeYour counsel decides
bankruptcy
Usually a notice to creditors and possibly an order.
receivership
Follows your order, and lender consent where the lien reaches general intangibles.
assignment for the benefit of creditors
Follows your state's statute.
liquidating trust
Under the plan and trust agreement.

This describes FirmLedge's process. It is not legal advice; your own counsel decides what approvals and notices apply to you. The full process, with the checklist of what we ask a source for, is on How it works.

Exclusions

What stays out from the start.

These are excluded from the first offer. You and your counsel can add to the list.

  1. 01
    Personnel, payroll and timekeeping files.
  2. 02
    Biometric time-clock data.
  3. 03
    Bank and card data.
  4. 04
    Government IDs, I-9s and medical notes.
  5. 05
    Privileged legal files.
  6. 06
    Customer-owned patterns and drawings.
  7. 07
    Export-controlled data.
  8. 08
    Records covered by NDAs or vendor terms that bar the use.
  9. 09
    Anything a court order did not preserve.

Who is asking

Who is asking for these records.

AI developers and data research companies with written requests for whole-company records.

Whole companyWritten request
seeks
Whole-company operating and financial records, including email and documents
its stated next step
A fit read, an indicative range and terms within days of a high-level inventory
Operating recordsWritten request
seeks
Operating records, licensed as a whole
its stated process
De-identification and sample extraction with its own tool and engineer, so the estate's team does no technical work

The buyers and their written requests are identified in the assessment. A written request is not an offer for any estate's records.

Fit check

Check whether the records fit.

About two minutes, mostly checkboxes. It requests the one-page assessment without a call, and Andrew replies within two business days. See a fictional example of the assessment.

Your role, the company status, the company or estate, your name and email are required. Everything else is optional.
Your role (required)
Company status (required)
What survives (check any)
Years of history
Where it sits (check any)
Any deadline ahead (check any)
Who controls the records
The matter and how to reach you

A case number or docket name works.

No files, financial figures, logins or customer names.

We use these details to respond to your fit check. Privacy policy.

Boundaries

What we will not do.

These hold for every estate, from the first conversation on.

  1. 01
    Share a company's name with a buyer before you approve it.

    Buyers see an unnamed profile first.

  2. 02
    Move files before access and handling are agreed in writing.

    The first steps need descriptions, not records.

  3. 03
    Include personnel, payroll or timekeeping data.

    They stay out from the start, with the other exclusions above.

  4. 04
    Promise anonymity by removing names alone.

    Removing names does not guarantee anonymity. Distinctive figures can still identify a business or person.

  5. 05
    Cite a price before buyers have responded in writing.

    A number comes only from an inventory and a buyer's written response.

  6. 06
    Proceed without the approvals your counsel says apply.

    Court, creditor or lender approval comes first where it applies.

  7. 07
    Take a fee from the estate in the buyer-paid route.

    The buyer pays FirmLedge, and that fee is shown next to its proposal.

Andrew Gallagher, founder of FirmLedge
Andrew Gallagher · Founder

Who you would be dealing with

Andrew Gallagher, founder.

My background is in private equity at SNH Capital Partners and investment banking at Wells Fargo Securities. I lead the work from the first conversation through release approval, with specialist review where needed.

Much of that work involved organizing company records, reconciling figures and understanding what the numbers meant. I bring those skills, along with my work on financial tasks for AI training and evaluation, to preparing useful data. I read the docket before I write.

FirmLedge is early-stage. You can inspect a fictional records package and the fictional example assessment, and I can walk you through them before you decide.

More about Andrew

Prefer to talk? Call Andrew at (312) 291-1954.

Questions estates ask

Before you decide anything.

Does the estate pay FirmLedge?
Where a buyer engages FirmLedge to source records, the buyer pays FirmLedge and the estate pays no FirmLedge fee. Each buyer's proposal shows our compensation and who pays before you decide, and extraction, scanning or legal costs are agreed in advance.
Who authorizes a license?
The person who controls the records: the trustee, receiver, assignee, or plan or liquidating trustee under the appointment, or an authorized owner or officer for a company outside a court process. Any court, creditor or lender approval your counsel says is needed comes first. Holding records does not by itself establish the right to license them, so source authority, third-party rights, confidentiality and exclusions are addressed for the specific package.
What if the lender has a lien on the records?
A blanket lien may reach records and databases as general intangibles. Where it does, lender consent comes before any license, and we ask about the lien position in the first conversation. Your counsel decides what consent is needed.
What if the company is being sold as a going concern?
The sale terms decide. If the books and records go with the sale, a license of a de-identified copy may need to be granted before closing or carved out of the sale, or the records may simply go to the buyer of the business. That is your call and your counsel's; we can set out what each path would involve.
Do you need files to start?
No. The assessment is prepared from the docket, notices and public filings, and the fit check asks only for checkboxes and contact details. No files, logins or confidential details are needed at any step before a written agreement.
What happens to the records after a license?
Originals stay with you, and you keep whatever you must retain for tax, payroll, safety or court purposes. The buyer receives only the de-identified package you agreed to release, and the license limits its uses and bars re-identification and contact with employees or customers.
Is this a valuation?
No. The assessment is not a valuation and not an offer, and the first conversation is not a valuation or an offer. A number comes only from an inventory and a buyer's written response.
Who represents an estate or a closed company that wants to license its records to AI developers, and how is that representative paid?
FirmLedge, an early-stage firm based in Chicago, works with trustees, receivers, assignees, liquidating trustees and owners of closed companies: it identifies what survives, who controls it and which buyers want it, runs the process, and shows the estate or owner every proposal before they decide. Where a buyer engages FirmLedge to source records, the buyer pays FirmLedge and the estate pays no FirmLedge fee, with FirmLedge's compensation and who pays shown alongside each proposal.

No files first

Start with the assessment.

The fit check takes checkboxes and contact details, and Andrew replies within two business days.

Check whether the records fitHow a license would run
Call Andrew (312) 291-1954 Email Andrew [email protected]