Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford Capital, said: “As the industry leader with a $4.8 billion portfolio, we continue to build Burford’s team to meet the needs of our clients and the continuing growth of our business.

“At Burford, we place significant emphasis on a collaborative culture, with strong intellectual and interpersonal dynamics at the heart of our organization. As we add experts to our team, we look for intelligent, thoughtful and creative individuals who always try to expand upon what is possible—which we believe we have found with each of these new additions.

“We are pleased to announce these new hires and Jörn’s move to the DACH region, which continue to amplify our position as the gold standard in commercial legal finance.”

The composition of Burford’s global team of over 140 employees – 66 of whom are lawyers – reflects its category leadership as well as its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as half of Burford’s team are women, racial minorities or self-identify as LGBTQ.

Further growth of Burford’s industry-leading investment team

• Apoorva Patel has joined Burford in Washington, DC, as a Vice President with a focus on assessing legal risk in international arbitration, a topic about which he writes and speaks regularly as a leader in several global and national lawyers’ organizations focused on international dispute resolution. Prior to joining Burford, he was most recently Counsel in WilmerHale’s international arbitration and international litigation practices. Mr. Patel graduated from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude. 

• Gabriela Bersuder has joined Burford in New York as a Vice President. She previously practiced as a litigator at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where she represented Fortune 500 companies, food and beverage manufacturers and large corporations in complex commercial litigations, arbitrations and mediations. She clerked for the Honorable John G. Koeltl (Southern District of New York) and Honorable Christopher F. Droney (Second Circuit). Ms. Bersuder earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University.
• Peter McLaughlin has joined Burford in Chicago as a Vice President. Prior to Burford, he was a litigator at Sidley Austin, where he specialized in conducting investigations related to securities and healthcare regulation and served as counsel for jury trials, bankruptcy proceedings and arbitration hearings. He clerked for the Honorable James B. Zagel of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to earning a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law, he was a trading analyst at Credit Suisse. Mr. McLaughlin is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Dedicated staff to pursue business opportunities in DACH region

• Dr. Jörn Eschment, Senior Vice President, has relocated to Zug, Switzerland, to oversee the growth of Burford’s substantial business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining Burford’s investment team in London in 2018, he practiced international commercial arbitration and litigation at Herbert Smith Freehills in Hong Kong and at Schellenberg Wittmer in Zurich. Dr. Eschment read law at the universities of Freiburg, Liverpool, Marburg and Passau, graduating with the German Staatsexamen, an LLM in European law and a doctorate in public international law, all with distinction. He also holds a master’s from the War Studies Department at King’s College London.

Additional talent augments new business origination team 

• Bill Walker has joined Burford in Washington, DC, as a Director, building on a career spanning consulting, in-house and law firm roles. Most recently he expanded Deloitte’s law-focused business development efforts with key clients at Fortune 500 companies, publicly traded middle-market companies and law firms. Previously he founded Ansun Management Partners, a boutique professional services firm, was a corporate attorney specializing in complex corporate transactions at several large multi-national law firms and was an in-house lawyer at the American Red Cross. Mr. Walker earned his JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served as articles editor of the Connecticut Journal of International Law, and his bachelor’s in economics from College of the Holy Cross. 

Global organization strengthened with top talent across business functions

• Chermia S. Hoeffner has joined Burford as Vice President, Human Resources. Prior to joining Burford, she was Head of Human Resources at the National Audubon Society, where she led the human resources team, implemented organization-level job architecture and developed policies, procedures and initiatives crucial to the overall strategy at Audubon. Ms. Hoeffner has also worked in human resources roles at TIAA-CREF, Mercer and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. She has over two decades of experience managing a broad range of HR functions at global organizations. Ms. Hoeffner graduated with an MBA in management from Pace University and a bachelor’s in English from SUNY-Albany.
• David Helfenbein has joined Burford as Vice President, Public Relations. He has over a decade of experience in litigation and legal communication, crisis management, public affairs, government relations and public policy. Prior to joining Burford, he worked as an Associate Director at Finsbury Glover Hering and held senior roles at several public relations firms and branding agencies. He began his career working in the US Senate, followed by the US Department of State. Mr. Helfenbein earned his law degree from the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
• Ilya Podolskiy, CPA, CGMA, CRMA, Cr. FAC, has joined Burford as Vice President, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Compliance. Mr. Podolskiy has over a decade of experience implementing audit and SOX strategies. He was previously a SOX Manager for Sirius Group and for Assured Guaranty. Prior to that, Mr. Podolskiy held roles with internal audit functions including Senior Internal Auditor for American International Group (AIG) and Tokyo Marine North American Services (TMNAS). Mr. Podolskiy earned his bachelor’s in accounting from CUNY Hunter College and his master’s in taxation from Villanova School of Law.

• Phillip Lu has joined as Head of Burford’s Project Management Office, with responsibility for Burford’s program/project management, business analysis and strategic planning capabilities. He was previously a Director at KPMG, where he evaluated and developed new digital and data strategies, technologies and business models; he also served as a Senior Manager at EY. Mr. Lu began his career as a management consultant and held technology strategy and project management roles at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. He earned his bachelor’s in economics from New York University.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUR) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BUR), and it works with companies and law firms around the world from its principal offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore and Sydney.

A survey of law firm partners commissioned by Harbour on post pandemic strategies revealed that:

• 31% of those surveyed said their firms are actively considering an IPO in the next 12-18 months
• 50% said the pandemic had presented new opportunities for their firm
• 80% felt their senior leadership team should embrace innovation to deliver growth
• Only 22% of respondents said their firms had ruled out credit facilities with third party funders over the next 12-18 month

30^th NOVEMBER 2021: In a recent nationwide survey of over 200 law firm partners, 31% stated that their firm is actively considering a stock market listing in the next 12-18 months with a further 44% saying an IPO was under consideration.

Coupled with this, 78% of law firm partners said their firms were either in active discussions or considering whether to pursue a credit facility indicating that there is greater demand than ever before from partners at UK firms to seek external capital to complement their own equity.

Ambitious plans for growth are the catalyst for this sentiment change, with more than 50% of those surveyed saying the pandemic had presented new growth opportunities to expand existing practice areas or develop new business lines with several firms acquiring talented teams to spearhead growth.

Many law firm partners felt that adopting innovative practices was key to accelerating growth or maintaining market position, with 80% of respondents observing that senior leadership teams should incorporate innovation in the firm’s post pandemic strategies.

Whilst 86% of respondents highlighted some continued downward pressure from clients on costs for certain services, innovation and attracting external investment are expected to counteract this pressure and to meet the growth agenda.

Ellora MacPherson, Chief Investment Officer at Harbour said: “This survey shows a real desire by firms to access external finance to support their growth ambitions.  IPOs are one way of doing this but won’t be the best fit for all firms.

The survey reveals an expanding appetite amongst firms to source credit facilities from established litigation funders.

For more information, please contact harbour@thephagroup.com

About Harbour

Harbour is the largest privately-owned, dedicated litigation and arbitration funder in the world. Since its foundation in 2007, Harbour have become trusted advisors and providers of capital to law firms, corporates and claimants, supporting them in progressing high-value commercial disputes all over the world. So far, the organisation has funded 126 cases, with a total combined claim value of US$19billion, in both common and civil law jurisdictions, and in several arbitral forums.

About the survey

The survey was conducted by Censuswide and commissioned by litigation and arbitration funder Harbour. Through a survey of over 200 partners at law firms with 50 + layers, the survey sought to deduce the key challenges and opportunities law firms are facing, and what their priorities are post-pandemic.

A legal claim seeking compensation worth up to £73m for routine overcharging on train tickets affecting an estimated 3.2 million passengers has been filed against the operator of one of Britain’s busiest commuter railway networks.

The collective claim against Govia Thameslink Railway (“GTR”) – the operator of the Great Northern, Southern, Gatwick Express and Thameslink lines - was filed on Wednesday 24^th November with London’s specialist competition court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the “Tribunal”).

It was filed by Mr Justin Gutmann, a consumer rail campaigner who last month secured the landmark legal approval to bring to trial collective actions seeking compensation worth up to £93 million against two other rail operators, the South Western and Southeastern rail franchises, over the same issue.

The claim revolves around the lack of access to so-called ‘boundary fares’ – where travellers holding a London Travelcard should be offered discounted tickets taking them from the boundary of any zone covered by the card to their destination.

GTR is alleged to have not made ‘boundary fares’ sufficiently available for Travelcard holders to purchase, nor making passengers aware of their existence. The rail company’s failure has left customers with little option but to buy a higher fare than was necessary because their travelcard already entitled them to travel part of their journey. It is calculated that 240 million journeys since November 2015 could have benefited from boundary fares if travellers had been aware of them.

This is a breach of the UK’s competition rules (s.18 of the Competition Act 1998) and an abuse by GTR of its market powers. Great Northern serves destinations including Cambridge, Peterborough, King’s Lynn and Ely while Thameslink is a key commuter line to central London linking Brighton, St Albans, Bedford, East Grinstead and Luton Airport. Southern serves destinations including Brighton, Hastings, Portsmouth, Southampton, Eastbourne and Milton Keynes.

The claim is thought to affect an estimated 3.2 million passengers who held travelcards and used GTR services since November 2015.  The abuse is ongoing despite GTR also being the parent company of Southeastern.

Mr Gutmann, formerly of Citizens’ Advice, said: “This claim is the latest step in my campaign to stamp out routine overcharging of millions of passengers by some of Britain’s top rail operators. The failure of these companies to make Boundary Fares more freely available is scandalous and has been going on for years. It’s a practice that needs to stop – and passengers who have overpaid deserve compensation.”

What is the claim about? What are boundary fares?

Boundary fares allow passengers who own a Travelcard to travel beyond the zones it covers without doubling up on payment. Independent research has demonstrated that such fares are not readily available online or over the telephone and are rarely offered at ticket counters unless expressly requested. This practice is an abuse of the company’s dominant position and in breach of UK competition laws.

Who is eligible?

Passengers who owned a Travelcard at any time from 1 October 2015 and also purchased a rail fare from a station within the zones of their Travelcard to a destination outside those zones may be eligible for compensation under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (“2015 Act”). This allows for a collective claim to be brought on behalf of a group of individuals who are alleged to have suffered a common loss. As a result of the 2015 Act, groups of persons who have all lost out do not need to bring an individual claim to bring compensation for their loss. Instead, these consumers may all receive compensation through a single, collective claim brought on their behalf by Mr Gutmann.

Affected passengers will not have to pay any legal costs to participate in the claim and do not need to do anything at this stage to be included in it.

What next?

The Competition Appeal Tribunal will now determine whether or not Mr Gutmann’s claim is allowed to proceed. Anyone who would like to receive further information about the claim, can visit the claim website, www.BoundaryFares.com, to sign up for updates.

Justin Gutmann represents the passengers bringing this legal case against Govia Thameslink Railway Ltd. Mr Gutmann has a wealth of experience working in the consumer rights sphere and he has strong expertise in the transport sector. He has spent a large part of his professional life dedicated to consumer welfare, public policy and market research, and he was recently approved as class representative in similar cases against the South Eastern and South Western rail franchises.

Mr Gutmann’s final job was Head of Research and Insight at Citizens Advice. He spent eight years working for London Underground. Mr Gutmann is represented by Charles Lyndon Limited and Hausfeld. His claim is funded by Woodsford, a global ESG and litigation funding specialist.

Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a global private equity firm specializing in litigation and legal finance, has announced the hiring of new senior executive Michael Callahan.

Mr. Callahan joins Delta as its Chief Operating Officer, where he will execute the firm’s strategic and tactical plans worldwide; lead investor relations; and oversee the implementation of new business initiatives, product development, and office openings.

Prior to joining Delta, Mr. Callahan worked at Boston Capital for 28 years, where he was a Senior Vice President and the Director of Asset Management. At Boston Capital, Mr. Callahan was responsible for a team of over 60 professionals monitoring and reporting on the performance of Boston Capital’s $7.7 billion portfolio, including both lower tier asset management and upper tier investor relations functions.  Mr. Callahan also led the team at Boston Capital that developed a proprietary asset management and reporting platform which was utilized throughout the company.

Christopher DeLise, Delta’s Founder, CEO and CO-CIO, stated, “We are very pleased to welcome Michael to the Delta team, where his extensive experience in asset management, investor relations, and investment company operations will be invaluable as Delta continues its global expansion and further enhances the firm’s strong position within the litigation and legal finance industry.”