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Member Spotlight: Mats Geijer

By John Freund |

Mats Geijer is a lawyer by training, with a background in shipping and insurance companies, and a pioneer in the Scandinavian litigation funding market for the past 10 years. Currently head of Scandinavia at one of Europe’s oldest litigation funders, DEMINOR, Mats is a Swedish legal expert and an experienced business manager who has worked on a broad range of domestic and multi-national disputes with a particular focus on management liability, post-M&A-litigation and insurance disputes.

Mats comes with experience working for renowned international litigation funders and insurance companies, and is viewed as a pioneer in the Scandinavian Litigation Funding market, the “daddy of Nordic dispute funding” as someone once said. He worked on some of the first known deals in the region 10+ years ago and was recruited to setup the Deminor office in Stockholm during 2023.

According to Mats: “Now one year down the line, it’s been a roller coaster ride, with lot’s of traveling to see old and new faces in the legal community in Scandinavia and Europe. The opening of the office coincided with a dip in the economy, high inflation, high interest rates and generally a lot of stress in the financial system. The first case came in on day two from a bankruptcy estate when I literally had just gotten myself “online” after the summer break, and it hasn’t stopped.

Another aspect that I have really enjoyed at Deminor is the opportunity to work with private enforcement on Antitrust cases, this is an interesting and growing market in Scandinavia. To summarize, it has been a positive start and I hope we can continue the positive momentum during the years to come. Everyone in the industry is always welcome to pay us a visit in Stockholm, the capital of Scandinavia (in the view of Swedes at least).”

Company Name and Description:  Founded in 1990, Deminor is a leading privately-owned and international litigation funder with offices in Brussels, London, Hamburg, Madrid, New York, Stockholm, Hong Kong, Milan, and Luxembourg. Deminor’s name, derived from the French ‘défense des minoritaires’, reflects its origins in providing services to minority shareholders. Deminor is still very much defined by the pursuit of good causes and its determination to restore justice for clients. Deminor is the brand name of the Deminor Recovery Services group, a group of companies whose strategic focus is to assist businesses and investors in monetising legal claims. Deminor is ranked Band 1 by Chambers and Partners for Litigation Funding in Europe.

Company Website: www.deminor.com

Year Founded:  1990

Headquarters:  Brussels, Belgium

Area of Focus:  Litigation Funding of commercial disputes in Scandinavia, primary target is arbitration proceedings. Antitrust and private enforcement on behalf of claimants. Investment recovery assistance on securities litigation on behalf of institutional investors.

Member Quote: The service we provide is a win-win for all parties – when done in the right way!

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John Freund

John Freund

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Commercial Deals

iLA Law Firm Expands Services to Include Litigation Funding Agreements

By Harry Moran |

As the relationship between litigation funders and law firms continues to grow intertwined, we are not only seeing funders getting more involved in the ownership of law firms, but also specialist law firms looking to provide their own niche litigation funding services.

An article in Legal Futures covers the expansion of iLA into the business of litigation funding agreements, with the Poole-based law firm providing this new service offering to a range of clients from individuals to SMEs. iLA’s co-founder and chief finance officer, Luke Baldwin, explained that one aspect of the law firm’s litigation funding service includes work on matrimonial cases, providing funding of between £25,000 to £75,000 to individual clients. Other examples include funding for disputes brought by SMEs over ‘undisclosed commissions on energy contracts’, or individuals with claims relating to car finance agreements.

iLA was founded in March 2022 by Mr Baldwin and Anastasia Ttofis, with both co-founders having previously worked together on their Bournemouth-based brokerage business, Niche Specialist Finance. Since its launch, iLA has grown from servicing 13 clients in its first month to providing independent legal advice to between 600 and 700 clients. iLA’s growth has been bolstered by a series of partnerships with other solicitors, brokers and lenders, including a partnership with the specialist mortgage lender, Keystone Property Finance.

Announcements Commercial People Moves

ALFA Welcomes Mackay Chapman as Newest Associate Member

By Harry Moran |

In a post on LinkedIn, The Association of Litigation Funders of Australia (ALFA) announced that it is welcoming Mackay Chapman as its newest Associate Member. Mackay Chapman becomes the 12th Associate Member of ALFA, following the inclusion of Litica in April of this year.

Mackay Chapman is a boutique legal and advisory firm, specialising in high-stakes regulatory, financial services and insolvency disputes. The Melbourne-based law firm was founded in 2016 by Dan Mackay and Michael Chapman, who bring 25 years of experience in complex disputes to the business.More information about Mackay Chapman can be found on its website.

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Case Developments Commercial

Deminor Announces Settlement in Danish OW Bunker Case

By Harry Moran |

An announcement from Deminor Litigation Funding revealed that a settlement has been reached in the OW Bunker action in Demark, which Deminor funded litigation brought by a group of 20 institutional investors against the investment banks Carnegie and Morgan Stanley.

This is part of a wider group of actions originating from OW Bunker’s 2014 bankruptcy, which led to significant financial losses for both company creditors and shareholders who had invested in the company. These other cases were brought against several defendants, including OW Bunker and its former management and Board of Directors, Altor Fund II, and the aforementioned investment banks.

The settlement provides compensation for plaintiffs across the four legal actions, with a total value of approximately 645 million DKK, including legal costs. The settlement agreement requires the parties to ‘waive any further claims against each other relating to OW Bunker’. Deminor’s announcement makes clear that ‘none of the defendants have acknowledged any legal responsibility in the group of linked cases in connection with the settlement.’

Charles Demoulin, Chief Investment Officer of Deminor, said that “the settlement makes it possible for our clients to benefit from a reasonable compensation for their losses”, and that they were advising the client “to accept this solution which represents a better alternative to continuing the litigation with the resulting uncertainties.” Joeri Klein, General Counsel Netherlands and Co-head Investment Recovery of Deminor, said that the settlement had demonstrated that “in Denmark it has now proven to be possible to find a balanced solution to redress investor related claims.”