1. In a processing device in communication with a document repository, a method for assessing entities, the method comprising: retrieving a first set of documents from the document repository based on a query, the first set of documents having first metadata values corresponding to a plurality of metadata attributes; characterizing the first set of documents based on the first metadata values to provide a first document set characterization; determining at least one candidate entity based on the first set of documents; for each of the at least one candidate entity, retrieving a second set of documents from the document repository based on the query and the candidate entity, the second set of documents having second metadata values corresponding to the plurality of metadata attributes; for each of the at least one candidate entity, characterizing the second set of documents based on the second metadata values to provide a second document set characterization; and for each of the at least one candidate entity, comparing the second document set characterization with the first document set characterization to determine a corresponding degree of similarity between the first document set characterization and the second document set characterization.