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Augusta, the UK’s largest litigation and dispute funding institution by case volume - with a team of 70 in London - today announces the appointment of Polly Bahl as Chief Operating Officer, based in London. Polly joins from US law firm Proskauer Rose where, as London Director of Professional and Administrative Resources, she coordinated a range of operational functions. A solicitor by training, Polly qualified with SJ Berwin (now King & Wood Mallesons) where she became a partner specialising in private investment funds, a role which latterly incorporated various operational responsibilities.
Polly’s hiring is the latest addition to Augusta’s senior team following the recent arrivals of Gowling WLG Partner James Foster as Head of International Arbitration and FTI Consulting Managing Director Leor Franks as Chief Marketing Officer. These additions reflect Augusta’s ongoing growth and increasing client demand for dispute and litigation funding. Commenting on the appointment, Louis Young, Managing Director at Augusta, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Polly to Augusta. We’ve been looking to fill this role for some time, and with her wide experience of corporate functions including Risk, IT, HR and Finance and her legal background, Polly will play a key role in this important phase of our growth”. Polly Bahl commented: “I’m really pleased to be part of the continued expansion of Augusta’s operations given the exciting opportunities for further development in the UK and internationally. I’m very much looking forward to working with Augusta's capable team and to help further develop a leading player in litigation and dispute funding”.
About Augusta Ventures:
- Established in 2013, Augusta is the largest litigation and dispute funding institution in the UK by # cases with a team of 70 in London and 85 worldwide. Augusta’s scale enables us to make decisions in market-leading timeframes and fund cases of any size. - Augusta is organised into a series of specialist practice groups: Arbitration, Class Action, Competition, Consumer, Intellectual Property and Litigation, and sectors including Financial Services and Construction & Energy. - By the end of H12019, Augusta had funded 213 claims with a market-leading win ratio of over 80%. - Augusta recently announced £25m funding deals with international law firm Pinsent Masons and leading litigation law firm HFW.
The Essure brand birth control device is put out by Bayer, who is accused of knowingly distributing a faulty product. More than 17,000 plaintiffs have claimed serious pain and suffering from broken devices including device migration and perforated organs. Bayer continues to deny any wrongdoing and stands by the safety of its product, with all intentions of defending itself against the many lawsuits already filed, and the many more sure to come.
In spite of past dismissals, California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania courts are currently selecting bellwether trial cases and setting court dates. The largest number of pending cases is in California, and their courts have compiled the largest collection of documents and information regarding the Essure devices. California and Pennsylvania are looking to try their cases sometime in 2019, while Illinois courts have already set a trial date, albeit not until 2020.
Chris Janish, CEO of Legal-Bay commented, "Legal-Bay has seen an increase in the filings for Bayer's Essure device. While there are no settlements or jury verdicts in these lawsuits, we nevertheless remain committed to assisting plaintiffs with their presettlement cash advance needs."
If you are involved in an Essure birth control lawsuit and are looking for presettlement cash now, you can fill out an application at: http://lawsuitssettlementfunding.com
Legal-Bay is a leading personal injury pre-settlement advocate, and works directly with many of the top mass tort law firms to provide the best pre-settlement cash advance rates in the industry in as little as 24 – 48 hours. If you do not have an attorney, Legal-Bay can assist you with retaining a top lawyer or law firm that specializes in Essure cases.
All of Legal-Bay funding programs are risk-free as you only repay the advance if your case is successful. The non-recourse advance is not a lawsuit loan, lawsuit loans, pre settlement loan, or pre-settlement loans.
Please apply online at: http://lawsuitssettlementfunding.com or call the company's toll free hotline at: 877.571.0405 where agents are standing by.
Source: Legal-Bay LLC
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BroadRiver Asset Management, L.P., a New York based manager of alternative assets announced today that Emma Dickson has joined the firm as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer and a key member of the firm’s management team.
“Legal excellence and outstanding compliance have been hallmarks of our firm since its inception,” said Philip Siller, Co-CEO of BroadRiver Asset Management. “Emma brings to BroadRiver years of diverse experience supervising investment funds and leading compliance teams, both in-house and at leading law firms. We look forward to working with her in building our offerings and providing exceptional service to our clients.”
Ms. Dickson was most recently Counsel to the Investment Funds Group at the Akin Gump office in London, UK. From 2014 to 2017, she was General Counsel at Criterion Capital Management, LLC, a San Francisco-based investment adviser. Prior to joining Criterion in 2014, she worked as an Attorney for Man Investments, focusing on fund launches, securities regulation issues, and general corporate counsel functions. Prior to joining Man in 2008, Ms. Dickson was an associate in the Investment Management Group at Schulte Roth & Zabel, LLP, where she handled a variety of legal issues related to alternative investment funds.
Ms. Dickson received a B.A. in History from Columbia University and a JD/MBA from Georgetown University Law Center & McDonough School of Business.
BroadRiver, which closed on its third longevity fund in September of 2018, seeks to provide clients with exposure to assets that have compelling risk-adjusted returns, low volatility, and negligible correlation to financial markets. BroadRiver’s highly selective approach to asset selection is underpinned by proprietary analytics and a deep commitment to research, resulting in carefully structured portfolios with strong, predictable cash flows.
Ms. Dickson’s focus will be to add her legal proficiency to the firm’s expertise in structuring and managing the firm’s new and existing funds in a range of non-correlated asset classes. The new strategies include exposure to litigation finance, global trade receivables, and other uncorrelated income assets. She will complement BroadRiver’s management team, positioning the firm to add to its $1.4 billion in assets under management.
About BroadRiver Asset Management
With assets under management of $1.4 billion, the firm focuses on alternative investment management strategies involving non-capital markets assets. It boasts one of the deepest and longest-tenured longevity-risk investment teams, having served institutional clients for almost twenty years.
For more information, please visit www.broadrivercap.com.
International law firm Pinsent Masons has agreed an innovative £25m litigation funding facility with the UK’s largest* litigation and disputes funder Augusta Ventures. The unique arrangement offers clients the benefit of a dedicated facility at preferred rates, including a fast-tracked due diligence process and transparent commercial terms.
Under the fair and transparent terms of the agreement, Augusta will fund the entire cost of pursuing the claim, including all lawyer and expert fees and any other costs. The arrangement is "non-recourse" meaning the claimants pay nothing if the claim fails. Augusta only recovers its costs and fees from sums received from the Defendant or any other paying party.
Mark Roe, leading on Third Party Funding for Pinsent Masons, comments on the driver for the agreement:
"We know that the costs of pursuing a justified claim often deter our clients from obtaining justice and recovering money due to them. Often, even if clients have funds available, they prefer to invest them in their business rather than in pursuing claims. We wanted to address that problem. I believe our arrangement with Augusta will provide Third Party Funding to our clients efficiently, quickly, on clear terms and at lower cost. We've been able to negotiate considerably better terms than our clients would typically receive from Funders if we or they made an individual approach to the market."
Augusta Managing Director, Louis Young, said:
“We’re delighted to be working with top international firm Pinsent Masons on funding litigation and disputes for their clients. Augusta has built a market leading team and process for enabling access to justice, and we are looking forward to helping Pinsent Masons' clients secure the support they need to pursue meritorious claims”.
The litigation funding facility is the latest in a series of innovative offerings from the firm.
Alastair Morrison, Head of Client Relationships at Pinsent Masons says:
"Our clients are operating in industries that are experiencing profound change. We're investing in services that help them to respond to these tectonic shifts, changing our business from an expertise-based law firm into an international professional services business with law at its core. This means that we don't just apply lawyers to solve clients' problems; we deploy a wider range of professional disciplines, enabled by process and technology, to collaborate with our clients and others in the legal ecosystem to help them achieve their goals. This arrangement with Augusta is another example of how we seek to respond to our clients' challenges. "
Within the last three years Pinsent Masons has acquired diversity and inclusion consultant, Brook Graham, expanded its freelance lawyer hub, Vario, into Australia and Asia, and deployed a range of bespoke legal technology solutions built and tailored to client requirements by its 46-strong in-house R&D team.
Notes:
About Augusta
Augusta is the largest litigation and dispute funding institution in the UK* - with £150m of capital and a team of 70 in London our scale enables us to make decisions in market-leading timeframes and fund cases of any size.
*=by number of cases.
About Pinsent Masons
Pinsent Masons is a global 100 law firm, specialising particularly in the energy, infrastructure, financial services, real estate and advanced manufacturing and technology sectors. The firm employs over 3000 people worldwide, including around 1500 lawyers and more than 400 partners. The firm's international footprint encompasses seven offices across Asia Pacific, two offices in the Middle East, six offices in continental Europe and one in Africa. The firm also has comprehensive coverage across each of the UK's three legal jurisdictions.