Burford Capital, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today announces that it has expanded its European footprint while also continuing to add leading legal talent to its global operation. Expanded client demand for offerings such as corporate monetization and law firm portfolio financing, combined with a greater desire and need for legal finance in Europe due to legislative changes related to collective redress, have resulted in Burford’s continued growth. In Europe, Burford now has an on-the-ground presence in London, Frankfurt, Zug, Paris, Rome and Stockholm.
Changes to Burford’s European operation include:
Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford Capital, said: “As the global industry leader, Burford is constantly evolving to meet our clients’ needs. We continue to add the best and brightest talent company-wide, because that’s the basis not only for growth but for developing strong and lasting client relationships. And I’m especially pleased that as we hire new global talent, we’re also promoting our existing talent into leadership positions.”
Philipp Leibfried, Burford Capital’s Head of Europe, said: “While Burford has always had a significant presence in both the UK and in Europe, with 47 staff now in London, we are also dedicating additional resources to Europe to match growing demand on the continent. From the UK to the DACH region, France, Italy, Sweden and more, we are committed to serving our clients. We look forward to meeting demand from European law firms in areas such as collective redress, securities claims and competition-related litigation, in addition to more award and judgment monetization work with our corporate clients.”
The composition of Burford’s global team as of May 11, 2023 of more than 150 employees – and more than 60 of whom are lawyers – reflects its category leadership as well as its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, as half of Burford’s team are women, racial minorities or self-identify as LGBTQ+.
Since its last hiring announcement in November 2021, Burford has expanded its industry-leading global team, including the following senior employees:
Experienced leaders join as Treasurer and Chief Compliance Officer
Additional growth of Burford’s industry-leading investment team
Business origination team adds top industry experts
Top global legal talent joins the business
About Burford Capital
Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk management, asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUR) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BUR), and it works with companies and law firms around the world from its offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, DC, Singapore, Sydney, Hong Kong and Dubai.
For more information, please visit www.burfordcapital.com.
Three quarters of law firms would consider selling a percentage of their business to an external buyer, new research has revealed.
A survey of 200 law firm partners commissioned by Harbour, the world’s largest independent litigation funder and law firm lender, showed that 149 of the 200 partners surveyed said their firm would consider external ownership.
The most willing to sell a percentage were the firms with a turnover of between £5m and £10m with all those questioned saying their firm would consider it.
The next most willing to consider external ownership were firms with a turnover of between £50m - £100m (89%), £30m - £50m (86%) and £10m - £30m (79%).
Those least likely to sell were those with turnovers of £400m - £500m (22%) and £100m - £400m (48%).
Of those who said they would not consider external ownership, loss of control was most cited (51%) as the key issue that would need to be resolved before they would consider selling. Other factors included future partner compensation (47%), obtaining partner consensus (37%) loss of employees (33%) and loss of culture or ethos (31%).
The survey revealed that the vast majority of law firms are willing to consider using alternative funding in the next year to 18 months, though 83% of firms said they would consider using cash reserves or asking for increased investment from partners.
Popular forms of alternative funding included bank loans (82%), greater use of contingency fee or damages based agreements (DBA) (79%), credit or lending facilities from litigation funders (78%) and stock market listing/non-lawyer shareholders (77%).
Ellora MacPherson, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer at Harbour, said: “These results show that the legal sector is well and truly open for investment from external sources. With 75% of law firms considering external ownership, it is a fascinating time in the market with the trend for mergers and acquisitions set to continue. Our survey shows this isn’t just the smaller firms, but also those with substantial turnovers.
“In addition, with law firms and their partners having weathered turbulent economic times during the pandemic, it is clear that many are looking at alternative forms of investment. At a time of high interest rates, specialist lenders to the legal sector, who understand lawyers and law firms, are well-placed to provide attractive finance options.”
Survey methodology
200 law firm partners were interviewed online by Censuswide between 05.07.2022 - 20.07.2022.
About Harbour Litigation Funding
Harbour Litigation Funding is the world’s largest independently owned litigation funder. Since launching in 2007, the business has been at the forefront of the growth and development of the global funding market.
Headquartered in London, the business funds cases across the globe ranging from one-off disputes valued from circa. £1m to portfolios of multi-million-pound cases. It also funds the growth of law firms by offering credit facilities and through equity investments.
Harbour is a founder member of the Association of Litigation Funders (ALF), a member of the International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) and the Commercial Litigators’ Forum.
Ellora Macpherson is managing director and chief investment officer.