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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.
Commercial

In-house Legal Department Guide for Litigation Finance

In-house legal departments are enduring more pressure than ever to reduce expenses. According to a survey by Harvard Law with Ernst & Young, 88% of GCs stated that they’ll likely have to reduce legal spending over the next few years, while more than ¾ have difficulty meeting current workload goals. Roughly the same number have predicted that their workload will soon grow to exceed their budgets. Woodsford Litigation Funding details a variety of ways in which legal funding can help in-house legal teams adapt to changing economic times—while using legal departments to earn revenue rather than spend it. Litigation funding is provided on a non-recourse basis and may be used to fund single cases or a portfolio of cases. Funding agreements can vary, but often include a significant percentage of case proceeds going back to the funder in exchange for the risk it undertakes and the expertise it provides. Taking on affirmative litigation can be costly and time-consuming. With funding though, expenses are covered. This allows companies to pursue meritorious litigation without depleting budgets. Remember, failing to pursue judgments can be as costly as litigating them. By utilizing third-party funding, the risk is transferred. If a case succeeds, the company shares the award with the funder. If it fails, the company is no worse off. Budgeting legal departments can be tricky due to their inherent unpredictability. Surprise litigation, new regulations, economic turmoil, and say, a pandemic, can cause instability that litigation funding can help assuage. A partnership with a third-party funder can assist in negotiations with outside counsel and create alternative fee arrangements, which may keep costs low. Support from funders provides expertise, since most funding entities employ financial and legal professionals, plus specialists in the areas and industries they typically work with. Funders may also help vet and fund the right legal team for your case.