Private equity (PE) firms often view legal disputes involving portfolio companies as liabilities—not opportunities for value creation. However, in a recent blog post, Omni Bridgeway argues that when properly modeled and leveraged, dispute finance can unlock hidden value throughout a PE investment lifecycle.
An article on Omni Bridgeway’s website explains that dispute finance enables PE firms to convert uncertain legal claims into a probability‑weighted, risk‑adjusted net present value (NPV), which can be used as a powerful negotiating lever in acquisitions. The firm illustrates this with an example: a $10 million litigation claim, after probabilistic weighting, legal cost deductions, and discounting, yields a risk‑adjusted NPV of roughly $3.5 million—highlighting how firms can avoid overpaying for speculative legal value
Once the investment is underway, dispute finance can preserve EBITDA by funding legal costs outside the P&L, since such non‑recourse financing isn’t treated as an SG&A expense or recorded as debt. Omni Bridgeway demonstrates that a $2 million litigation expense can be eliminated from SG&A, boosting EBITDA from, say, $11 million to $13 million.
As dispute finance becomes more accepted in M&A workflows, funders that offer robust valuation frameworks and flexible, non‑recourse instruments may gain a competitive edge. Overall, Omni Bridgeway’s post highlights that monetising legal claims—through non‑recourse capital advances or outright sale to a funder—can free up liquidity for operational initiatives without increasing downside risk.
When people talk about third party litigation financing, they often lump everything into one bucket—as if every type of funding that touches the legal system is essentially the same. But that’s a misconception. The world of legal finance is much more varied, and each type serves a distinct role for a distinct audience.
A good way to understand the differences is to step away from the courtroom and into the world of music. Think of Consumer Legal Funding as a rock band, Commercial Litigation Financing as a symphony orchestra, and Attorney Portfolio Financing as a gospel choir.
All three make music—they all provide funding connected to the legal system—but they produce very different sounds, are organized differently, and serve different purposes. Let’s explore these three “musical groups” of legal funding to understand how they work, why they exist, and what separates them.
Consumer Legal Funding: The Rock Band
Immediate, Personal, and Audience-Driven
A rock band connects directly with its fans. The music is raw, emotional, and often tied to the lived experiences of ordinary people. That’s exactly what Consumer Legal Funding does—it provides individuals with direct financial support while they are waiting for their personal injury cases to resolve.
Most people who seek consumer legal funding have been in a car accident, or experienced some other harm caused by negligence. While their cases work their way through the legal system, they still need to pay rent, buy groceries, keep the lights on, and support their families. Consumer Legal Funding steps in to help them cover these day-to-day expenses.
Like a rock band that thrives on the energy of a crowd, Consumer Legal Funding is closely tied to the needs of everyday people. It’s not about abstract legal theories or corporate strategy. It’s about giving real people financial breathing room so they can withstand the pressure from insurers who might otherwise push them to settle for less than they deserve.
Flexibility and Accessibility
Just as a rock band doesn’t require a massive concert hall or multimillion-dollar backing, Consumer Legal Funding is accessible on a small, personal scale. A consumer can request a few hundred or a few thousand dollars to cover immediate needs, and repayment is contingent on the case outcome. If the plaintiff loses, they owe nothing.
This non-recourse structure mirrors the risk of a rock band going on tour—they might make money, or they might not, but the fans are there for the experience. Similarly, Consumer Legal Funding companies take the risk that the case might not succeed, and they may not get their investment back.
Critics and Misconceptions
Rock bands often face criticism for being too loud, too disruptive, or too unconventional compared to “serious” classical music. Consumer Legal Funding gets similar pushback. Critics sometimes argue it encourages frivolous lawsuits or drives up settlement costs. But the reality is the opposite—the funds provided to a consumer doesn’t fund lawsuits; they fund life necessities for individuals already in the legal system.
Consumer Legal Funding’s role is narrow but vital. Like a rock band giving a voice to ordinary people, it empowers individuals who might otherwise be silenced by financial hardship.
Commercial Litigation Financing: The Symphony Orchestra
Complex, Structured, and High-Stakes
Where Consumer Legal Funding is the rock band of the legal funding world, Commercial Litigation Financing is the full symphony orchestra—large, complex, and meticulously coordinated.
Here, the players are not individuals injured in accidents but corporations, investors, and law firms involved in high-value commercial disputes. These cases can involve intellectual property battles, antitrust issues, international contract disputes, or shareholder actions. The stakes often run into the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.
Like an orchestra, Commercial Litigation Financing is structured and multi-layered. Each section—strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion—must work together under the baton of a conductor. In litigation finance, this “conductor” is the funding company, aligning investors, lawyers, and plaintiffs toward a common goal: seeing the case through to resolution.
Strategic and Long-Term
Orchestras don’t play three-minute songs; they perform long symphonies that require endurance, precision, and careful planning. Similarly, Commercial Litigation Financing is not about immediate cash flow. It’s about supporting a complex legal strategy over years of litigation.
Funds can cover attorney fees, expert witnesses, discovery costs, and even corporate operations while a case drags on. The financing enables companies to pursue claims they might otherwise abandon because of the sheer cost and duration of litigation.
Audience and Impact
The audience for an orchestra is often more formal, more elite, and more willing to pay for a grand performance. Commercial Litigation Financing likewise serves a specialized, high-stakes audience: multinational corporations, hedge funds, and sophisticated investors. The outcomes affect entire industries and markets, not just individual households.
While a rock band might play in bars or stadiums, an orchestra plays in concert halls before an audience expecting refinement. That’s the difference in scale between Consumer Legal Funding and Commercial Litigation Financing.
Attorney Portfolio Financing: The Gospel Choir
Collective Strength and Community
If Consumer Legal Funding is a rock band and Commercial Litigation Financing is a symphony orchestra, then Attorney Portfolio Financing is a gospel choir. It’s powerful, collective, and rooted in the idea of strength in numbers.
Attorney Portfolio Financing provides capital to law firms by pooling together multiple cases—often personal injury or contingency fee cases—into one financing arrangement. Instead of betting on a single case, the funding spreads across a portfolio, much like the voices of a choir blend to create a unified sound.
Stability and Predictability
A gospel choir doesn’t rely on one soloist to carry the performance. If one voice falters, the rest keep singing. Similarly, portfolio financing reduces risk because the outcome of any one case doesn’t determine the success of the financing. The strength lies in the collective performance of many cases.
This allows law firms to take on more clients, expand their practices, and better withstand the financial ups and downs of litigation. For clients, it means their attorneys have the resources to see their cases through rather than being pressured into quick settlements.
Purpose and Spirit
Gospel choirs aren’t just about music—they’re about inspiration, resilience, and community. Attorney Portfolio Financing carries a similar spirit. It’s designed not only to provide financial stability for law firms but also to empower them to serve clients more effectively.
While the audience for a gospel choir is often the community itself, the “audience” for portfolio financing is law firms and, indirectly, the clients who benefit from better-resourced representation.
Comparing the Three Sounds
To appreciate the differences, let’s put the three side by side:
Type of Funding
Musical Analogy
Audience
Scale
Purpose
Consumer Legal Funding
Rock Band
Individuals waiting for case resolution
Small-scale, personal
Helps consumers cover living expenses while awaiting settlement
Commercial Litigation Financing
Symphony Orchestra
Corporations, investors, large law firms
Large-scale, complex
Funds high-stakes commercial disputes over years
Attorney Portfolio Financing
Gospel Choir
Law firms (and indirectly their clients)
Medium-to-large scale
Provides stability by funding multiple cases at once
Why These Distinctions Matter
Understanding these distinctions isn’t just an academic exercise—it has real implications for policy, regulation, and public perception. Too often, critics conflate Consumer Legal Funding with Commercial Litigation Financing or assume Attorney Portfolio Financing operates the same way as individual case advances.
But regulating a rock band as if it were an orchestra—or treating a gospel choir as if it were a solo act—would miss the point entirely. Each type of legal funding has its own purpose, structure, and audience.
Consumer Legal Funding keeps people afloat in times of crisis.
Commercial Litigation Financing enables corporations to fight complex battles on equal footing.
Attorney Portfolio Financing stabilizes law firms and expands access to justice.
All three are part of the broader “music” of legal finance, but they are distinct genres with distinct contributions.
Conclusion: Harmony Through Diversity
Music would be dull if every performance sounded the same. The same is true for legal finance. A rock band, a symphony orchestra, and a gospel choir all create music, but their sounds, audiences, and purposes differ dramatically.
Similarly, Consumer Legal Funding, Commercial Litigation Financing, and Attorney Portfolio Financing are all forms of legal finance, but each plays a unique role. Recognizing these differences is crucial for policymakers, industry professionals, and the public.
When we appreciate the rock band, the orchestra, and the choir for what they are, we begin to see the full richness of the legal finance “soundtrack.” Together, they form a diverse ecosystem that, when balanced correctly, ensures both individuals and institutions can pursue justice without being silenced by financial pressure.
Pollen Street Capital ("Pollen Street") today announces a new senior secured credit facility of up to £50 million to New North Litigation Capital (“New North”). New North is a commercial litigation finance company and a direct subsidiary of Capital Law, a Cardiff based law firm founded in 2006.
Capital Law has a strong track record in commercial litigation, having closed over 400 claimant cases since 2001 with a 95% win rate. Drawing on its senior leadership and experienced disputes team, Capital Law launched New North to address the underserved small to mid-market segment of commercial litigation market.
New North will be the only litigation financier in the UK owned and operated by practicing lawyers, bringing their day to day lived experience of handling mid-market litigation into pricing the risk and the funding investment decisions.
Christopher Nott, Founder and CEO of New North commented: “We are pleased to work with Pollen Street on this financing to launch New North Litigation Capital. The funding supports us to bridge a critical gap by funding claims that are often deemed too small by other players in the market. We are excited to work with the Pollen Street team as we create this new kind of litigation funding.”
Connor Marshall-Mckie, Investment Director at Pollen Street, commented: “New North addresses an important gap in the litigation funding space, focusing on smaller mid-market commercial litigation. With the significant opportunity available and the deep experience of the leadership team from Capital Law we are excited to partner with the team to support their growth.”
About Pollen Street
Pollen Street is a fast-growing and high-performing private capital asset manager. Established in 2013, the firm has built deep capability across the real estate, financial and business services sectors aligned with mega-trends shaping the future of the industry. Pollen Street manages over €7bn AUM across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of over 95 professionals.
Express Legal Funding announced it has reached its fifth year as a member of the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding (ARC), underscoring a commitment to best practices in an often-polarized pre-settlement space. For a company that brands itself around transparent pricing and consumer education, the ARC imprimatur doubles as a marketing and compliance asset—especially as statehouses revisit disclosure, APR caps and contract clarity.
An announcement in PR Newswire positions the milestone within a “rapidly growing” lawsuit-cash-advance market. While the release is light on metrics, the message tracks with the broader U.S. consumer-funding narrative: pressure from insurers and tort-reform groups on one side; advocates and funders emphasizing access to liquidity and non-recourse safety on the other.
For plaintiff firms, vendor due diligence remains a reputational imperative; for consumers, independent accreditation—however voluntary—can serve as a quick proxy for baseline standards when shopping funding offers. The strategic subtext is clear: as more states contemplate rules around discoverability, disclosures and rate structures, firms that can point to consistent adherence to codes like ARC’s may enjoy smoother law-firm relationships and fewer regulatory headwinds.
With regulatory skirmishes likely to continue at the state level, recurring membership signals (ARC or otherwise) will matter more.
Editor's Note: An earlier version of this article stated that Express Legal Funding reached its fifth consecutive year as a member of the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding. Express Legal Funding reached its fifth year, but not consecutively. We regret the error.
A new salvo in the UK’s collective actions saga puts third-party funding in the spotlight. The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has criticized aspects of mass-consumer practices—specifically around funding and referral fees—raising uncomfortable questions for claimant firms and their financial backers. The latest flashpoint again involves Innsworth, the funder behind the long-running Mastercard litigation brought by class representative Walter Merricks CBE, where wrangling over settlement distribution and funder economics has spilled into public view.
An article in The Times reports that the watchdog sees “poor practices” in parts of the market and notes escalating tensions tied to the £200 million Mastercard settlement—well below the claim’s original £14 billion headline—prompting Innsworth’s threatened action over the deal’s terms. The piece underscores the funding dynamics now woven into virtually every major UK mass claim, from opt-out competition cases to data-privacy suits; the SRA’s framing suggests a harder regulatory edge on fee flows and governance in arrangements that align firms, funders and marketing affiliates.
Beyond the immediate case drama, two structural trends are converging. First, post-PACCAR contract examination has left funders and class reps renegotiating economics and disclosure with tribunals watching closely. Second, political and judicial appetite for “light-touch” oversight (rather than price caps) remains in flux, even as market size and claimant outreach expand.
If the SRA proceeds from cautionary statements to targeted enforcement, firms may re-paper referral arrangements and introduce additional ring-fencing around funder influence to avoid conflicts.
Apex Litigation Finance has announced the retirement of Stephen Allinson from his role as Head of Legal, marking the end of a formal leadership chapter but not his association with the litigation funder.
Stephen is a highly respected Solicitor and Licensed Insolvency Practitioner with more than 40 years’ experience in business law, insolvency and debt recovery. Over the course of his career, he has combined practice with thought leadership, lecturing widely on credit and insolvency matters and serving in senior regulatory and educational roles.
His distinguished career includes:
Building and leading a nationally recognised insolvency and debt recovery practice at a large regional law practice, employing over 60 department staff and managing key national contracts.
Serving as Chairman of the Board of The Insolvency Service and Chairman of The Joint Insolvency Examination Board.
Holding senior tribunal and regulatory positions, including membership of the ICAEW Conduct Committee and more than a decade chairing disciplinary and appeal tribunals for the ACCA.
Chairing the Assessment Board of the Chartered Institute of Credit
Stephen first joined Apex in 2019 as a consultant, before becoming Head of Legal in 2022. In that capacity he has been instrumental in guiding Apex’s legal strategy, strengthening its market position and ensuring the company’s commitment to fair, practical and client-focused litigation funding.
While he will be stepping down from the Head of Legal role, Stephen’s association with Apex will not end. He will continue to serve the business as a trusted consultant, providing invaluable expertise and support to the team and Apex’s clients.
Maurice Power, CEO of Apex Litigation Finance, said: “Stephen’s contribution to Apex has been exceptional. His legal expertise, combined with his deep understanding of insolvency and credit law, has helped shape Apex into the funder it is today. We are delighted that while he is stepping down from his formal role, we will continue to benefit from his counsel as a consultant. We thank him sincerely for his leadership and look forward to our continued collaboration.”
Tim Fallowfield, Apex Chairman wrote: “Apex would not be where it is today without Stephen’s contribution, his wide-ranging legal knowledge and passion for his work. He has mentored the legal team, led by example and been an integral member of the Apex Investment Committee. We wish him lots of luck for the next chapter and look forward to his future engagement with the Apex business. From all of us at Apex, a hearty thanks.”
Stephen commented: “It has been a privilege to be part of the Apex journey and contribute to the growth of the company. Access to justice has always been one of the guiding principles of my professional career and I look forward to the continuing growth of Apex and still playing my part, albeit in a different role.”
About Apex Litigation Finance
Apex Litigation Finance provides fast, fair and flexible funding solutions for small to mid-sized UK commercial disputes requiring between £10,000 and £750,000 of funding, on a non-recourse basis. By combining financial support with deep sector expertise, Apex enables access to justice for claimants while serving as a trusted partner to legal professionals and insolvency practitioners.
Pogust Goodhead has emphatically denied that it is controlled by litigation funders, insisting it retains full “forensic independence” in the high‑profile claim over the 2015 Mariana dam collapse.
As LFJ recently reported, the class action firm, representing hundreds of thousands of victims in a potential £36 billion lawsuit against mining giant BHP, is under scrutiny following the recent ousting of its co‑founder and chief executive, Tom Goodhead, at the behest of its primary financier, Gramercy Funds Management.
An article in The Law Society Gazette reports that Pogust Goodhead maintains it enjoys “forensic independence” from its principal backer. Opponents—including BHP and its counsel, Slaughter and May—have raised serious concerns about governance, questioning whether Gramercy now exerts undue influence over strategic decisions—an arrangement that could run foul of English and Welsh rules reserving case control for qualified lawyers.
In response, Pogust Goodhead reiterated that it remains “fully independent, with complete control over the strategy and direction of every case” and that its renewed governance structures strengthen its capacity to act in its clients’ best interests. Gramercy, for its part, denied any ownership or management control of the firm.
Looking ahead, this unfolding governance dispute raises critical questions for the future of litigation funding: How will courts view funder-linked control over claimant law firms? Could the outcome limit or reshape access-to-justice models reliant on third-party financing? As this case nears a key ruling, the legal funding industry may be on the cusp of a regulatory watershed.
Robin Ganguly used to be a litigation funder and insurer, and is now a Partner at elite London disputes law firm CANDEY. Robin has almost 20 years of litigation and arbitration experience. He conducts a broad range of commercial, financial and insolvency disputes and has extensive experience of high-value international cases. Robin acts for large corporates and individuals alike, and is praised by clients for his commercial approach.
Prior to joining CANDEY, Robin spent almost 10 years at Magic Circle firm Linklaters, including secondments at investment bank clients, and four years at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, where he led the contentious insolvency practice alongside his broader commercial litigation role. Robin then spent time at litigation funder Burford Capital and in the litigation insurance industry at Aon and Fidelis. Robin is therefore uniquely well placed to assist clients looking to obtain funding and insurance for their disputes, and to advise on disputes in relation to funding agreements and insurance policies.
Robin speaks French, Italian and Spanish. He is qualified as a Solicitor Advocate and can appear himself for clients before the Higher Courts of England and Wales.
Below is our LFJ Conversation with Robin Ganguly:
CANDEY is involved in a wide array of high-value disputes. Can you share some insights into the types of cases that are most challenging or rewarding to work on?
We often work in collaboration with litigation funders to achieve access to justice for clients who have been defrauded and as a result of the fraud do not have funds to pursue expensive litigation. In those situations we use our deep experience of litigation funding and litigation insurance to put together the best structure for the risks in the case to be allocated among different stakeholders, which often means our firm taking on substantial fee risk.
One of our core practice areas is international trusts disputes. These cases are very challenging because they often involve arbitration and litigation in multiple jurisdictions, co-ordinating local firms, freezing injunctions and other emergency applications to attempt to secure assets for enforcement. These are all expensive processes which rely on a law firm (and sometimes litigation funders) to have faith and stand behind their clients for many years to avoid capitulation to the bad actors. When we achieve success in disputes such as these it makes all of the effort worth it.
With offices in multiple international locations, how does CANDEY navigate the complexities of cross-border disputes and international law?
Our cases often involve multiple offices (various of London, New York, BVI, Vienna, and we’ve got plans to open in Asia), and our ability to serve clients internationally is a key reason why clients come to us. In New York our team provides a transatlantic bridge between the US law firms with whom we co-counsel, and the CANDEY teams in other locations, but having one firm that’s able to take ownership of as many jurisdictions as possible ensures things run smoothly. Due to the way we are structured we are able to explore international contingency fee arrangements for clients, in a way that very few other firms can do.
Given CANDEY's focus on lawyers' rights and access to justice, what initiatives are you most proud of, and how do they align with the firm's values?
At CANDEY we believe that everyone should have the right to legal representation so that they can bring their arguments before a court of law. Many firms will refuse to act on certain cases where they fear “biting the hand that feeds them”, or cases where they do not like the potential impact of being associated with certain claimants or arguments, but we feel that if all firms took those views, clients would not be able to test and enforce their legal rights, with a corresponding chilling effect upon the English legal system more broadly.
CANDEY has been vocal in championing the rule of law and refusing, along with the Bar Council, to allow prejudice to prevent anyone from being represented before the Courts on the basis of their race, religion or nationality.
How has CANDEY adapted to the increasing prevalence of cryptocurrency disputes and financial crime, and what strategies do you employ to stay ahead in these evolving areas?
We have a well-established fraud practice and involvement with organisations such as CFAAR in the UK, and we have been seeing increasing numbers of cryptocurrency disputes. These sometimes concern fraudulent investment schemes and in those cases the catch is often obtaining a “book” of victims that is large enough and organised enough to make a case economically viable for a law firm or funder to back. Building the book costs money so it can be chicken and egg. Due to the international nature of cryptocurrency, the cases frequently involve competing claims on frozen assets by different states or prosecutors and therefore have a political dimension which can be difficult to predict.
What are your thoughts on the current landscape of legal funding, and how do you see it impacting the types of disputes CANDEY handles?
The litigation funding market in the UK is experiencing some challenges at the moment. As is the global litigation insurance market (other than ATE) following large losses on complex judgment preservation policies. That makes it increasingly important for law firms to be able to share fee risk, either alongside funders or where funding cannot be obtained. We get a large number of enquiries from clients looking to us to represent them in their cases, big and small, and we are able to use our experience of funding and insurance to be able to advise clients whether the case is likely to attract funding and/or insurance and to put them in the best position to secure it. When enquiries come in, my role can feel very similar to my previous role at Burford Capital: assessing the legal theory and case merits but also looking ahead to enforcement and whether the damages are likely to be large enough to make the case viable. In terms of case type, we always see plenty of shareholder disputes, contract disputes and trust disputes, and those types of claim have not seen the same souring of attitudes or aggregation issues among funders or insurers as, say competition cases.
A new joint study by the Insolvency Law Academy and Burford Capital sheds light on how legal finance is gaining traction as a strategic tool in the India's insolvency processes. By enabling distressed entities and professionals to monetize contingent assets without exhausting limited estate resources, legal finance has the power to enhance liquidity and improve recovery outcomes for creditors.
An article by Burford Capital unveils how legal finance-backed structures can convert contingent claims into tangible value, supporting corporate continuity and delivering stronger creditor returns. The study highlights India’s unique factors: abundant untapped recoveries from avoidance claims and disputed receivables, widespread capital shortages faced by insolvency professionals, and the need for prompt liquidity solutions. It also references real-world case studies showcasing how legal finance facilitated strategic wins for firms like Hindustan Construction Company and Patel Engineering.
On the regulatory front, judicial rulings—such as in Tomorrow Sales v. SBS Holdings (2023)—have explicitly recognized the legitimacy of legal finance in India’s litigation ecosystem. Meanwhile, updates to the IBC now permit the assignment of “not readily reali[z]able assets” during liquidation, laying groundwork for integrating legal finance into the insolvency framework. Nonetheless, the regulatory landscape—including aspects of FEMA compliance and fund repatriation—remains cautiously permissive.
Emerging operational structures include direct estate financing, SPV‑based claim ring‑fencing, and creditor assignments for immediate value. The report urges a “light‑touch” regulatory approach, alongside the development of codes of conduct and educational efforts to arm insolvency professionals and creditors with the know‑how to deploy legal finance effectively.
Looking ahead, as India’s insolvency infrastructure matures, legal finance is poised to play a central role—unlocking value in distressed assets, bridging funding gaps, and aligning with global best practices.
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