Looking up US company details

I'm trying to find out a little bit of information about a US company before potentially doing some work for them.

If I wanted to find out about a company in the UK, I would search on the Companies House website, which gives access to information about directors and filings. What's the equivalent for US companies? I searched at the SEC website but could not find any mention of the company I was looking for. Does that mean that it does not exist, or is there somewhere else I should be looking?

Dan -

You are prudent to try to do some research. When I help clients negotiate with a company for the first time, I do similar research to try to confirm, at the least, that the company exists in good standing.

This is a more laborious process in the U.S. than in the U.K., because most of the relevant information is recorded at the state, rather than the federal, level. (Complicating the situation, fictitious business names may be recorded at the state or county level, depending on the state.) (SEC information would be only for publicly-held entities.)

The methodology that I used is explained in the post "Researching the Opposing Party: Forewarned is Forearmed ".

Disclaimer: This post does not constitute legal advice and does not establish an attorney-client relationship.