
Augusta, the UK’s largest funder of litigation by case volume today announces the appointment of Clara Segurola as Lead Economist.
Clara is a financial economist with more than 15 years of professional experience and joins from NERA Economic Consulting, where she was an Associate Director specialising in the assessment and quantification of damages in international disputes.
Recognised as one of the Most Highly Regarded Expert Witness Future Leaders in Who’s Who Legal Arbitration, Clara has a strong track record of valuations and economic quantum assessments in investment and commercial disputes across various industry sectors.
Louis Young, Managing Director of Augusta, said “Clara and her skill set are a key addition to our recently incepted Investment Valuation and Structuring team, which is headed up by Matt Pitchers, who joined us from Deloitte late last year. The IVS team is our response to demands from our law firm clients who are looking for deeper expertise and support from their funder. The services of this team are available at no cost to our law firm partners, and it makes the task of structuring finance solutions for their claims a much more collaborative process.”
Clara Segurola, Lead Economist at Augusta, said “I am very pleased to be joining Augusta Ventures. I’ve been impressed with Augusta’s reputation in the market and their forward-thinking approach to innovation. I look forward to making a significant impact and to helping law firms and their clients gain access to funding in the most efficient way”.
About Augusta
– Established in 2013, Augusta is the largest litigation and dispute funding institution in the UK by # cases.
– Augusta has offices in London, Sydney, Melbourne and Toronto.
The UK's Legal industry generated revenues of £2.35bn in May 2020, 12% down on May last year. May 2020 was the lowest-earning month in four years, according to Office of National Statistics data released on 14th July.
May is traditionally the weakest month of the year for the Legal profession, with April being one of the most lucrative. Industry revenues fell 29% between April 2020 and May 2020, with April having remained relatively robust as the impact of lockdown had likely not yet fully washed through.
In comparison, the overall Services sector (including Legal) which had been harder hit and was at its lowest level in a decade, grew by 2% in May, similarly to the UK’s overall economy which increased by 1.8% month on month.
Louis Young, MD at Augusta said: “May’s revenue data demonstrates the significant negative impact the pandemic has had on the UK’s Legal industry. But as such data reflects work that would have commenced before the crisis, which is in line with how law firms operate, the true final impact is likely to be greater. As the wider economy begins to show signs of recovery, many law firms continue to look for options to control costs and strengthen their balance sheets with the expectation that they are not yet out of the woods”.
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About the ONS Data