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People Moves

Who’s Who Legal’s Thought Leaders in Third-Party Funding

Who’s Who Legal recently assembled a list of movers and shakers in the third-party legal finance industry. They represent a global community of stakeholders advancing the acceptance and adaptability of the industry. Who's Who Legal's highlighted professionals include Julia Gewolb, Director of Underwriting at Validity Finance. Gewolb relies on her extensive legal experience to create an environment where clients can expect a speedy answer on funding compatibility. She emphasizes that legal funding isn’t just for those who struggle financially—it’s also a valued tool for companies looking to mitigate risk.  Co-founder of Profile Investments, Iain McKenny, enjoyed a lengthy career in international disputes before launching PI. He explains that many potential clients are unaware of the differences between legal funding and bank loans—to their detriment. McKenny seeks to educate the public on the benefits of the practice and to increase access to justice.  Alain Grec is also a co-founder of Profile Investments. He emphasizes the flexibility of portfolio funding as a means of money management. Grec is deeply involved in the growth and expansion of PI, as well as the debate between those who support external regulation and those who feel self-regulation is sufficient. Investment Manager and head of the Houston office for Validity Finance, Laina Hammond, is seeing increased demand for funding in oil and gas cases—largely arising from turbulence in the industry. She emphasizes building goodwill by establishing trust. The team at Validity is made up of experienced trial lawyers who put client needs first. Drumcliffe, a fund facilitating recovery of assets for victims of international corruption or fraud, is led by James Little. Little enjoys being a go-to source for fighting fraud. He is impressed by how well the legal industry has adapted to the challenges of COVID, and claims that this allowed Drumcliffe's funds to flourish despite tragedy.  David Kerstein is the Chief Risk Officer of Validity. In fewer than three years, Kerstein helped grow the company from a startup funder with few employees to having $100 million in committed capital, and over $400 million in raised capital. He welcomes the trend of funding being used by companies as a means of mitigating risks, in addition to more traditional funding applications. Validity Finance CEO and Founder, Ralph Sutton, is considered a pioneer in the funding industry. Sutton has lectured on civil justice at Stanford and Harvard Law, among others. He believes that the funding industry is not in need of increased regulation—and that regulation will hinder access to justice, rather than increase it. Ben Moss is a new addition to the team at Orchard Global Asset Management. His background in law and finance have combined to make him a valued asset to Orchard. He points out that the legal and financial merits of a case are equally important factors when determining which cases should receive funding.  In the UK, thought leaders represent the biggest names in litigation funding, including Burford Capital, Litigation Capital Management, Augusta Ventures, Omni Bridgeway, and Harbour. While in France, Profile Investment and Vannin Capital are the sole firms represented.  Globally, Omni Bridgeway has the strongest presence on this list. Burford Capital, Therium, Vannin Capital, and LCM also featured prominently. Unsurprisingly, Australian representation on this list of thought leaders focuses on Omni Bridgeway, Vannin Capital, LCM, and Therium.
Announcements People Moves

Lauren J.Harrison Joins Law Finance Group as Vice President/Investment Counselor

Law Finance Group, a leading commercial litigation finance company, today announced that Lauren J. Harrison has joined the firm as Vice President/Investment Counselor, based in Houston, Texas. Ms. Harrison will work with Law Finance Group’s underwriting and business development teams, where she will focus on evaluating the merits of proposed investments while also identifying and managing growth opportunities in the civil litigation space. “Lauren’s deep expertise in antitrust, intellectual property, and commercial litigation, in addition to her long-standing relationships across the AmLaw 200, will be tremendous assets as we continue to grow our business,” said Kevin McCaffrey, Law Finance Group’s CEO. “We are thrilled to welcome Lauren to our team as we add scale to our platform to take further advantage of the exciting opportunities in the litigation finance markets.” Ms.Harrison joins Law Finance Group after practicing for more than 30 years as a civil litigator for leading law firms int he Houston area. Most recently, she was a Partner in the Litigation Practice Group of Jones Walker LLP, where she represented clients active in the areas of alternative energy development, traditional oil exploration and production, energy infrastructure, chemical and mechanical engineering, software development, entertainment, media distribution, and manufacturing. Earlier in her career, Ms. Harrison worked as a Partner in the litigation departments of Conner & Winters and Vinson & Elkins LLP, and before practicing, served as a judicial clerk to the Honorable Thomas S. Zilly in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington and the late Honorable Eugene A. Wright in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She received her J.D.fromCornell UniversityLawSchool, where she graduated magna cum laude and was elected into the Order of the Coif, and earned her B.A. degree from Dartmouth College, where she graduated magna cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. AboutLaw FinanceGroup Founded in 1994, Law Finance Group is a leading litigation funding firm focused on investing in high-value civil litigation opportunities.LawFinance Group partners with law firms and their clients to mitigate risk, improve cashflows, and leverage existing assets in the face of litigation risk. The firm has offices in Mill Valley, New York, and Austin. For more information, visit www.lawfinance.com.
Announcements Fundraising

$wLITI lists on Changelly PRO, on the heels of HitBTC and Bitcoin.com listings

Liti Capital’s wLITI token, a wrapped version of the Swiss company’s LITI equity token, lists on Changelly PRO, $wLITI pairs with BTC and USDT are now available for trading. This comes less than a week after listing on Bitcoin.com Exchange and less than two weeks on HitBTC. The Changelly PRO team has expressed their warm welcome to the litigation financing token. “We are happy to welcome $wLITI to our big family of carefully curated cryptocurrencies and hope that our users will gain maximum benefits from this collaboration. We are proud to partner with a company that provides financial resources, strategic solutions and renowned connections to the best law firms worldwide to help plaintiffs obtain court awards for damages or losses they have suffered,” says a Changelly PRO spokesperson. Liti Capital, a Swiss-based blockchain private equity fund specializing in raising capital for legal cases, is making waves in traditional investing by bringing litigation financing to the masses, an investment practice traditionally monopolized by hedge fund heavyweights and elite investors. Litigation financing is the practice of bringing in investors to cover the cost of a lawsuit or arbitration in exchange for a portion of the profit. Litigation financing specialists, such as Liti Capital, purchase litigation assets for cases they deem to have a high chance of winning. “We appreciate the amazing support that established exchanges such as Changelly PRO have shown for our $wLITI token. With high profile projects in the blockchain and decentralized finance spaces finally attracting mainstream interest, we are excited to explore the possibilities for $wLITI as a wrapped version of an equity token that offers regular people the chance to invest in an asset class that previously wasn’t available to them,” says Liti Capital CEO Jonas Rey. $wLITI: an ERC-20 Wrapped Version of Equity Token $LITI wLITI is an ERC-20 wrapped version of the LITI equity token. Launched on June 29, 2021, the wLITI token is suitable for trading on centralized exchanges (CEXes) like Changelly PRO, and also on DEXes, whereas the LITI token is only available through liticapital.com after meeting KYC requirements. Liti Capital uses the blockchain to manage its share registry. Development of its own blockchain-based case management tools is on its roadmap. wLITI can be exchanged for LITI at a token buyer’s request via Liti Capital’s app or website, which converts LITI to wLITI at a 1:5000 ratio and vice versa. The tokens will always maintain this ratio. The buyer is then able to trade their wLITI freely. Liti Capital does not directly sell wLITI. LITI is a true digital share of Liti Capital that has voting rights, pays dividends and is protected under Swiss law. LITI is purposely not designed to be on exchanges at this time. Both tokens represent Liti Capital, whose mantra is “Private Equity for All.” Liti Capital works exclusively in a single form of private equity – Litigation Finance, also called third party funding. This asset class has remained almost entirely exclusive to hedge funds and venture capitalists since its inception several decades ago. Litigation Finance is the practice of financing all or part of a legal case on behalf of a plaintiff for an agreed upon percentage of the court award. Once Liti Capital purchases a portion of ownership of a case, it provides capital that can be used in many ways: legal fees, case management and strategy, expert witnesses, intelligence work and whatever else is needed to give the plaintiff the best chance of winning the case and collecting the award. The portion owned by Liti Capital becomes a “litigation asset” that backs the LITI token. On 19 August 2021, Liti Capital announced that it was funding a claim against Binance, which would enable affected individuals to pursue compensation in relation to the exchange failing on 19 May 2021. This failure resulted in the trading accounts (including Futures, Margin, and Leveraged Token products) of at least 700 and potentially thousands of individuals being effectively untradeable for hours, causing traders to suffer losses that could exceed one hundred million dollars. Listing Details
Trading Opening:Aug. 30, 2021 3 PM UTC
Trading Pairs:wLITI/BTC
wLITI/USDT
About Liti Capital Switzerland-based Liti Capital is a Swiss limited liability company specializing in litigation finance and fintech. Liti Capital buys litigation assets to fund lawsuits and provides a complete strategic solution along with connections to top law firms to help clients win their cases. Tokenized shares of the company lower the barrier of entry for retail investors and give token holders a vote in the company’s decision-making process. Dividends are distributed to LITI token holders upon the success of the plaintiff. Jonas Rey, co-founder of Liti Capital, also heads Athena Intelligence, one of the most successful intelligence agencies in Switzerland. His two co-founders, Andy Christen and Jaime Delgado, bring operational, innovation and technical skills to round out the leadership team. Liti Capital recently onboarded seasoned industry leader David Kay as chief information officer and executive chairman. Boasting more than a decade of experience as funding partner and portfolio manager of a billion-dollar private equity fund in the litigation financing space, Kay successfully enforced what was at the time the largest international arbitration award in history, bringing in over $1 billion in cash and securities. For project information, please read the Whitepaper. For token distribution, please read Tokenomics. Liti Capital Official Channels Liti Capital Website: https://liticapital.com Liti Capital Telegram: https://t.me/Liti_Capital_Official Liti Capital Telegram Announcements: https://t.me/Liti_Capital_Official_ANN Liti Capital LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/liti-capital Liti Capital Twitter: https://twitter.com/liticapital Liti Capital Medium: https://medium.com/@liticapital Liti Capital Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/liticapital About Changelly Changelly provides an ecosystem of products and services that enables customers to have a one-stop-shop experience when engaging with crypto. Operating since 2015, Changelly acts as an intermediary between crypto exchanges and users, offering access to 200+ cryptocurrencies that can be effortlessly swapped within 10 minutes on desktop and on the go via the Changelly mobile app. In 2020, Changelly branched out to accommodate the needs of traders. Changelly PRO has been built as a platform focused on the customer’s needs, effectively enabling retail buying and selling of digital tokens and coins. Piggy-backing on the great support system found within Changelly, Changelly PRO will provide the community with high limits, effective pricing, fast execution and 24/7 live support. Learn more about Changelly: Changelly Website: changelly.com Changelly PRO website: pro.changelly.com Twitter: twitter.com/Changelly_team
Deals

Halifax AU & NZ Litigation Funding Scheme

Per Australian law, Omni Bridgeway has registered with ASIC as a litigation funding scheme. This statement has been distributed to all applicable parties with an interest in the appeals in Halifax Investment Services Pty Ltd v Loo, and Halifax New Zealand limited v Loo, for Category 1 Investors. Omni Bridgeway details that Category 1 Investors include investors in Halifax Investment Services or Halifax New Zealand Limited (both in liquidation). These investors have an entitlement to a share of funds recovered—a sum that is likely to be higher after investments are realized. Mr. Choo Boon Loo, who brought the appeals, represents Category 1 investors. He asserts that the judges erred when determining the administrations’ dates in terms of the valuation of entitlements. Further, Loo asserts that the primary judges should have calculated the entitlements as closely as possible to the date of distribution—and after extant investments had been realized by the liquidators. Category 1 investors who wish to join the scheme can do so at no upfront or out-of-pocket costs. Omni Bridgeway is funding the appeals. Under the terms of the Funder Distribution Order, Omni Bridgeway would receive a share of the Increased Liquidation Distribution Amount if the appeals are successful. Investors will likely benefit from the appeals regardless of whether or not they apply to become members of the scheme. Those who do apply to join will be kept informed about new developments in the process. A Product Disclosure Statement is expected within a week, which will explain investor rights and entitlements in greater detail. Omni Bridgeway suggests that this statement should be considered carefully, perhaps with a professional adviser, to determine whether or not inclusion in the scheme is a good idea. Registering interest in the case does not imply an offer to participate in the scheme, nor does it constitute a funding agreement.
Case Developments

Washington DC Court Asked to Enforce $325MM Judgement Against Argentina

Last week, Titan Consortium filed a lengthy petition against Argentina’s government while seeking to enforce an earlier award from 2008. This continues a long dispute regarding the re-nationalization of two Argentinian airlines. CH-Aviation explains that three subsidiaries of Grupo Marsans were shareholders who made agreements to sell their shares to the Argentine government. However, the shares were instead seized without notice in 2009. Shareholders were given a single peso as “symbolic compensation.”   Collectively, the shareholders believed they were owed about $1.5 billion for both airlines. In 2017, ICSID awarded the companies $320 million in compensation, plus costs, fees, and post-award interest. The government’s actions were ruled to be arbitrary, and lacking in transparency. Titan Consortium purchased the rights to the lawsuit from funders Burford Capital for $94 million after Argentina tried to have the compensation order annulled over a funding agreement.
Case Developments

Ross Asset Management Case Ends in Confidential Settlement

Investors asked for more than $50 million in damages in the Ross Asset Management Ponzi scheme. The case was expected to be heard in the Wellington High Court in 2020 but was delayed. Instead, it ended unceremoniously, with a short statement revealing precious little about the confidential settlement. Interest NZ explains that the media statement was made on behalf of all parties, and did not disclose award or damage amounts. The parties involved all affirm that they were misled by Ross Asset Management and that there would be no further comment. Those who were waiting to see ANZ Bank in court will be left wanting. Ross Asset Management was essentially a Ponzi scheme that paid out returns to existing investors with funds from new investors. In 2012, it was discovered that RAM held only $10 million in funds, rather than the nearly $450 million investors were told. David Ross served seven years before being released on parole in 2020. In 2019, it was revealed that more than 2/3 of those who invested with RAM had enrolled in the class action. The case alleged negligence, claiming that ANZ knew, or should have known, that Ross was engaged in fraud. ANZ stated that they too were misled by Ross and denied any wrongdoing. It was this claim by ANZ that inspired investors to seek backing from a litigation funder. LPF Group’s involvement may have swayed the outcome, as ANZ knew that the case was fully funded and investors could follow it through to completion.
Fundraising

AxiaFunder Switches to Limited Partnership Investment Model

Following its soft launch, AxiaFunder plans to expand its liquidity by launching a secondary market next week. Currently operating an equity model, the funder plans to switch to a limited partnership model over the coming weeks. P2P Finance News details that the main difference here will be that investors will buy partnership shares, making them limited partners. Cormac Leech, founder and Chief Executive of AxiaFunder, explains that it’s more tax-efficient for the company, since investors are taxed on earnings—while the company does not pay the tax. This switch may keep some investors out, as Leech stated that the threshold to qualify will be higher than under the equity investment model. Only time will tell how this may impact LP participation in AxiaFunder. 
Announcements People Moves

More recruitment to fuel growth at Apex Litigation Finance

Recruitment is once again high on the agenda at Apex Litigation Finance as the company continues to fuel its growth strategy.
The company is continuing its flexible approach to its recruitment activity. Rather than advertise specific job roles, it is keen to hear from anyone who is excited about the company’s growth and direction, whether they have experience in litigation funding, artificial intelligence (AI), business development or fund management, or have a broader litigation background. Apex CEO Maurice Power says: “We are recruiting across the company, including to develop further our AI and predictive analysis capabilities. It’s our use of these disciplines that enables us to predict case outcomes, settlements, and timelines, but we aren’t standing still. We’ll continue to lead the way in developing and using innovative tools to bring even more sophistication to prediction and analysis. “The company is still less than two years old, but we have already achieved significant growth in case numbers. There’s a high demand for the funding of small/mid-size claims, which provides access to justice for many who are unable to pursue this through their own means. This demand, along with our use of AI to inform risk assessment, has seen us become one of the highest volume providers of non-recourse litigation funding in the UK.” Apex also continues to invite additional investors to support its growing pipeline of applications for litigation funding. It recently began marketing a £50m investor fund, providing opportunities as an attractive alternative to equity or fixed income investments. Interested parties are encouraged to email Apex via enquiries@apexlitigationfinance.com to express an interest in recruitment or investment opportunities. About Apex Litigation Finance Limited Apex Litigation Finance Limited is a company which brings together experienced individuals from the litigation funding, legal and finance sectors to provide third party litigation funding to litigants (corporates, liquidators, and individuals) who are unable to pursue a claim due to the prohibitive cost of litigation. Although the litigant’s case may have merits, uncertainty over the total costs and the potential risk of being ordered to pay the defendant’s costs, should they lose the case, prohibits access to justice for many claimants. Following an assessment of the merits of the litigant’s case, through use of Artificial Intelligence (software utilising predictive analytics to ascertain the likely outcome, duration, and settlement value of the case), legal and commercial expertise, Apex will commit funds to pay legal and other costs associated with the case in return for an agreed share of any award upon a successful conclusion. If there is no recovery, or if the case is lost, there is no debt for the litigant to repay.
Deals

Why Lawyers Fail to Secure Litigation Funding

According to research from Westfleet Advisors, at least 95% of cases pitched to third-party funders are rejected. Litigation funding is increasing in popularity and new entrants are always entering the space. But that hardly means securing getting a funding agreement is a sure thing. Westfleet Advisors managing partner, Charles Agee, explains that there are five main reasons why legal teams are denied funding.
  • Lack of Adequate Research. Approaching a funder without a full understanding of how that funder chooses cases is an obvious, and preventable mistake. The time spent preparing a pitch is generally not billable if the deal never comes to pass. Legal teams can save a lot of time by researching a funder fully before approaching them.
  • Failure to Connect with the Right Funder. In a continuation of Adequate Research, knowing which funders to approach is at least as vital as knowing which are not a good fit. Like any other asset, its value is dependent on finding the right audience.
  • Effectiveness of the Pitch. Once you decide on a funder to approach, your pitch should be well researched, including answers to every funder’s question you can anticipate. Case merits, the model for calculating damages, projected time frames, and the budget, are all essential parts of the pitch.
  • Negotiation Savvy. Expect there to be negotiations, not just a simple Yes or No. There will be vetting, due diligence, and multiple meetings during the process. It’s essential to be responsive, patient, and adaptable to the funders’ concerns in order to come to a balanced funding agreement.
  • Exclusivity. While exclusivity is a common and often necessary aspect of funding, it’s important not to grant it too early in the process. Once you do, you may find yourself at the mercy of a funder you know precious little about.
Avoiding these pitfalls will no doubt help in securing third-party legal funding.