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Commercial Regulatory Issues

Ask the Experts: What to Do When Deals Go Wrong

In the final panel of the conference, Michael Kelley, Partner at Parker Poe, moderated a discussion on lessons that can be learned from past deal issues. Panelists included Chip Hodgkins, Managing Director of Statera Capital, Tracey Thomas, CEO of IP Zone, and Erika Levin, Partner at Fox Rothschild.

This panel highlighted several stressors and break points that occur in funding relationships and transactions. One issue that often comes up is that communication problems arise. For example, there can be reporting requirements that firms forget to bring up at the start of a relationship. It’s often difficult to communicate all of the various burdensome filing requirements.

Another issue that can arise is economic inefficiency. Sometimes an inversion occurs, where a lack of attention to the budget arises, or a secondary counsel comes in and there’s an issue there. These things can cause obvious problems, given that lawyers just aren’t that great at budgeting, according to the panel’s perspective.

The panel recommends transparency, and addressing issues instead of burying them, which is often the temptation. For example, on budgetary issues, often counter-parties might not even be aware of where they are in the budget, so a lot of times avoiding problems just comes down to sharing information before a dislocation occurs.

Another interesting point: sometimes the relationship between law firm and funder becomes too cozy, and it’s no longer aligned with the client’s best interests. Tracey Thomas of IP Zone pointed out that in such situations, they’ve had to terminate the relationship, and they’ve found that termination is in their best interests in such circumstances.

On case management, sometimes funders can try to take control of the budgetary decisions of the case. One example that was brought up was when a funder told a client to ‘shut up and dribble,’ and follow their lawyer’s advice on where to spend money. While that may have been in the best short-term interests of the case, it fractured the relationship. Not to mention the fact that it was borderline unethical.

At the end of the day, the relationship between a lawyer and client should be sacrosanct. Once funding enters the relationship, things can get murky, and this can present ethical considerations that are very problematic. So this will be an ongoing source of contention as the litigation funding industry continues to mature.

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Commercial Deals

Palisade, Accredited Specialty Secure $35 Million Legal Risk Cover

By John Freund |

Specialty managing general underwriter Palisade Insurance Partners has taken a significant step to scale its fast-growing contingent-legal-risk book, striking a delegated-authority agreement with Accredited Specialty Insurance Company that enables up to $35 million in coverage for legal risk insurance products. The New York-headquartered MGU can now offer larger wraps for judgment preservation, adverse-appeal and similar exposures—coverages that corporates, private-equity sponsors and law firms increasingly use to de-risk litigation and unlock financing.

An article in Business Insurance reports that the deal provides Palisade's clients with the comfort of carrier balance-sheet strength while allowing the insurer to expand its program portfolio. The capacity tops up Palisade’s existing relationships and arrives at a time when several traditional markets have retrenched from contingent legal risk after absorbing a spate of outsized verdicts, leaving many complex disputes under-served.

Palisade leadership said demand for robust limits has “never been stronger,” driven by M&A transactions that hinge on successful appeals, fund-level financings that need portfolio hedges, and secondary trading of mature judgments. Writing on LinkedIn, Palisade President John McNally stated: "Accredited's partnership expands Palisade's ability to transfer litigation exposures and help facilitate transactional and financing outcomes for its corporate, law firm, investment manager and M&A clients."

The new facility aligns the MGU’s maximum line with those of higher-profile peers and could see Palisade participate in single-event placements that have historically defaulted to the London market. For Accredited, the move diversifies its program roster and positions the insurer to capture premium in a niche with attractive economics—provided underwriting discipline holds.

Commercial Regulatory Issues

Omni Bridgeway Maps Recovery Paths for PRC Creditors

By John Freund |

China’s ballooning stock of non-performing loans (NPLs) has long frustrated mainland banks and asset-management companies eager to claw back value from defaulted borrowers scattered across multiple jurisdictions. In its newly released 2025 Report on International Asset Recovery for PRC Financial Creditors, Omni Bridgeway distills the lessons of a growing body of cross-border enforcement actions and sets out a playbook for creditors determined to follow the money.

A paper published by Omni Bridgeway explains that the three-chapter study surveys today’s enforcement landscape, highlights “funded recovery” strategies for domestic institutions, and walks readers through case studies in which Chinese lenders have traced assets into offshore havens and employed Mareva-style injunctions, arbitral award assignments, and insolvency proceedings to compel payment.

The paper highlights how litigation finance can transform the economics of pursuing stubborn debtors. By underwriting investigative costs, securing local counsel, and bridging timing gaps between enforcement wins and cash realisation, funders such as Omni Bridgeway can turn an otherwise write-off-prone claim into a profitable workout.

The report also charts structural shifts reshaping the market: Beijing’s pressure on state banks to clean balance sheets, private-equity appetite for “special situations” paper, and widening acceptance of third-party funding in arbitration hubs from Hong Kong to Singapore. A series of recent matters—ranging from a Guangzhou lender’s successful freeze of UK real estate to a provincial AMC’s recovery of Latin-American mining assets—illustrate the potency of coordinated tracing, injunctive relief, and securitised claims sales.

For the legal-funding bar, the study underscores a powerful, still-underexploited pipeline: hundreds of billions of renminbi in distressed credit looking for capital-efficient enforcement solutions. Whether PRC banks will embrace external funders at scale—and how regulators will view foreign-backed recovery campaigns—remain pivotal questions for 2025 and beyond.

Commercial Regulatory Issues

Omni Bridgeway Hails U.S. Budget Bill Win

By John Freund |

Omni Bridgeway has sidestepped a potentially painful tax after President Trump signed the FY-25 Budget Bill without the much-debated levy on legal-finance proceeds. The Australian-listed funder, which bankrolls commercial claims on six continents, had warned that the original 40.8 percent surcharge floated in the Senate Finance Committee would depress case economics and chill cross-border capital flows. Instead, the final bill landed on 4 July with zero mention of legal-finance taxation, handing the industry a regulatory reprieve just as U.S. portfolio commitments hit record highs.

Sharecafe notes that Omni Bridgeway credits a rare coalition of plaintiff-side bar groups, access-to-justice NGOs, and chambers-of-commerce allies for persuading lawmakers to drop the proposal. The company says it will elaborate in its 4Q25 report later this month, but stresses that bipartisan recognition of funding’s public-interest role now mirrors supportive reviews in Australia, the EU and the UK.

For funders, the episode underscores two diverging trends: rising U.S. political scrutiny and an equally vocal defense of the asset class from sophisticated investors. Expect lobbying budgets to climb as Congress circles disclosure and tax issues again in 2026, but also expect money to keep flowing—Omni’s stance suggests confidence that regulatory headwinds can be managed without derailing growth.