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Omni Bridgeway Eyes Bangladesh Asset-Recovery Push

By John Freund |

Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, has launched an aggressive hunt for wealth allegedly spirited offshore during Sheikh Hasina’s 15-year rule. Central-bank governor and former IMF economist Ahsan H. Mansur says the campaign could target “tens of billions” across multiple jurisdictions, and he is canvassing up to US $100 million in third-party capital to pay the legal bills.

An article in The Asian Age reports that global funder Omni Bridgeway has already held a series of meetings in Dhaka and London with Mansur and executives from sixteen domestic banks to structure a bespoke vehicle that would finance asset-tracing, judgment enforcement and recovery of non-performing loans. Omni’s enforcement managing director Wieger Wielinga confirmed interest, citing the firm’s recent sovereign-award collections and its appetite for emerging-market risk. Mansur’s London visit earlier this month also included briefings with UK regulators on evidence-gathering and potential freezing orders.

The proposed fund would complement eleven “high-priority” probes already under way and could operate on a contingency-fee basis, shielding taxpayers from upfront legal spend while granting funders a share of any recovered sums. Critics inside Bangladesh warn that cash settlements with so-called “financial rogues” risk undercutting the anti-corruption mandate that powered the July 2024 revolution, while political opponents liken the plan to “outsourcing justice.”

If finalized, this mandate would rank among the largest sovereign asset-recovery financings to date, signaling widening acceptance of public-sector litigation funding across the Global South.

Deminor and Loopa Plot Germany’s Next Funding Phase

By John Freund |

Germany’s third-party funding market has evolved from a niche offshoot of insurance indemnity into a dynamic arena powered by collective-redress reforms and inbound capital. Practitioners say deal flow is rising as consumers leverage new opt-out mechanisms and corporates monetize dormant claims amid higher interest rates.

An article in CDR News chronicles how Deminor Litigation Funding, Latin-American entrant Loopa Finance and global heavyweight Omni Bridgeway are jockeying for market share while lawmakers debate caps on funder fees. Interviewees highlight a pivot toward portfolio deals and judgment-enforcement finance as Germany’s debtor-friendly regime forces sharper recoverability analytics. Law firms remain cautious after the Federal Court of Justice’s 2024 disclosure ruling left grey areas on privilege and control.

Observers foresee a surge in competition-damages and diesel-emissions claims once the EU’s Representative Actions Directive is fully transposed. Insurers—long the dominant capital providers—now face competition from specialist funds offering bespoke risk-sharing structures, while US and UK investors eye cross-border arbitration opportunities seated in Frankfurt and Düsseldorf.

Commentary: 41 % Litigation-Finance Tax Would Backfire

By John Freund |

The Senate’s proposed 41 percent levy on litigation-finance profits “solves nothing besides optics” and risks driving up overall litigation costs, according to tax columnist Andrew Leahey.

A column in Bloomberg Law argues the bill misunderstands how funders realize returns, which often materialize years after cash outlays and only when cases prevail. That timing quirk means the nominal rate vastly overstates the real burden.

Leahey notes the draft also exempts foreign-state-backed funders, potentially inviting capital from “countries of concern” to fill any vacuum left by U.S. investors. He predicts that, if enacted, the measure would raise little revenue while prompting constitutional challenges under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments—particularly on grounds of discriminatory treatment and retroactivity.

For the legal-funding market, the column crystallizes several dangers: higher pricing for plaintiffs, larger settlement demands as investors recoup costs, and a shift toward opaque offshore vehicles not subject to U.S. oversight. Funders may therefore front-load deals before any retroactive effective date and step up advocacy for transparency-oriented reforms over punitive taxation.

Burford Counters Tyson Foods Over Chicken-Price Settlement Fight

By John Freund |

Burford Capital has moved to knock out Tyson Foods’ interference lawsuit, telling an Illinois federal judge that the meat-packing giant—not the world’s largest litigation financier—scuttled talks to resolve sprawling chicken price-fixing claims brought by food distributor Sysco. In a motion to dismiss filed this week, Burford branded Tyson’s allegations of settlement meddling as “threadbare” speculation aimed at diverting attention from the underlying antitrust accusations.

An article in Reuters details Tyson’s April complaint accusing Burford of trying to “co-opt the legal system” by blocking a deal Sysco had weighed. Tyson says the funder leveraged its $140 million financing stake to push for a richer payout, impeding Sysco’s autonomy in the long-running poultry cartel litigation.

Burford’s filing counters that its 2019 funding agreement explicitly allows the financier to participate in settlement talks and notes Tyson rejected Sysco’s last offer back in 2021. After Burford thwarted what it viewed as sub-par settlements, Sysco transferred its claims to Burford affiliate Carina Ventures, removing the food-service giant from the case while preserving its potential recovery.

The skirmish comes as congressional Republicans revive proposals to tax litigation-finance proceeds at nearly 41%, underscoring a season of heightened scrutiny over how much influence funders wield in antitrust and class actions. Burford, which has repeatedly defended its model as bolstering access to justice, says Tyson’s suit would chill capital-backed claims by re-writing freely negotiated contracts after the fact.

For funders, the outcome may clarify how far investment contracts can reach into settlement strategy—especially when the underlying defendant wants a bargain exit. If Burford prevails, expect financiers to lean harder on contractual rights; if Tyson scores traction, future deals could feature stricter carve-outs to avoid similar challenges.

Litigation Capital Management Dissects CJC Funding Overhaul

By John Freund |

Regulatory upheaval is back on the agenda in London. Litigation Capital Management (LCM) has published a punch-by-punch analysis of the Civil Justice Council’s long-awaited Final Report on Litigation Funding, released earlier this month. The Working Party’s 58 recommendations include reversing PACCAR via legislation, imposing case-specific capital-adequacy tests, mandating early disclosure of funder identity and ultimate capital source, and introducing a “comprehensive but light-touch” statutory regime to replace today’s voluntary code.

In an article in Lexology, Sarah Webster of LCM notes that some proposals—such as exempting arbitration from the new rules and declining to cap funder returns—will please investors. Others, LCM argues, risk spawning “significant satellite litigation” and dampening appetite: an unenforceability penalty for regulatory breaches could hand defendants leverage to unravel funding deals mid-stream, while forcing disclosure of every ultimate investor may chill fundraising.

Additional layers for consumer and opt-out class actions would require independent KC advice and court sign-off on funder returns, potentially elongating timelines and increasing costs. Nonetheless, LCM welcomes recommendations to make funding costs recoverable in “exceptional circumstances” and to establish a standing data-collection committee that could inject empirical rigour into future policy debates.

Taken together, the Report sketches the most sweeping overhaul of third-party funding anywhere in the common-law world. Whether Westminster enacts the package—and how swiftly—now becomes the trillion-pound question.

Sentry Expands Free Funding Market Search for Litigators

By John Freund |

Sentry Funding’s free tool enabling litigators to instantly search the funding market on behalf of clients has been expanded.

Sentry’s free ‘decision in principle’ feature enables lawyers to evidence to clients that they have conducted a broad market search, even if funding is not ultimately taken out.

Having deployed £125m in funding across a range of case types, Sentry now has access to an even broader funding marketplace, covering 34 global jurisdictions. Finance is provided by 13 funders, five of which are members of the Association of Litigation Funders.

With the recent addition of Sentry’s first US-based funder, the US offering will now be expanding over the next few months. 

A faster process

Sentry has deployed the latest technology to make the search for funding even easier. 

  • The intuitive application process now only asks questions relevant to previous answers, saving lawyers time.
  • The commercial marketplace has been redeveloped with 63 new data points added to the funder criteria matrix - improving the accuracy of case / funder matching
  • Sentry has also begun building out its AI capabilities, starting with an automated auditing tool for live case progression audits. 

Tom Webster, chief executive officer at Sentry Funding, said:

‘By broadening our reach and speeding up the process, we’re making it even easier for lawyers to raise funding. We’re also giving litigators an easy way to show clients they have fully researched the market, rather than just approaching one or two funders. 

‘The service is free to use, so even if clients decide they do not ultimately want funding or if none is available for that case, for the lawyer, it makes sense to use our “decision in principle” feature, so they can put evidence on file that they did check the market.’

Sentry Funding is an SaaS (software as a service) technology provider that gives solicitors access to a diverse marketplace of litigation funders. It works with solicitors, funders and third-party providers to ensure claimants are getting the most efficient service for their funding needs. 

The Sentry Portal also acts as a case management system that runs a transparent digital case file for solicitors, funders, after-the-event insurance providers, barristers, cost lawyers and other relevant third parties.

NorthWall Capital Hits €2.9 B AUM on Private Credit Momentum

By John Freund |

NorthWall Capital has rocketed past €2.9 billion in assets under management after pulling in an additional €1.6 billion of institutional capital in 2025 alone. The London-based alternative credit manager says the surge reflects allocators’ intensifying hunt for scaled, multi-strategy platforms as Europe’s banks retrench and borrowers seek bespoke sources of credit.

A press release from NorthWall Capital details first-close totals across four distinct strategies. The flagship Credit Opportunities fund secured €731 million—already eclipsing its prior vintage—while the newly launched Senior Lending vehicle raised $503 million, translating to roughly $750 million of deployable firepower once leverage is applied. Asset-Backed Opportunities collected €252 million for collateral-rich loans in sectors underserved by traditional lenders, and the specialist Legal Assets platform locked down $169 million to extend the firm’s law-firm lending programme.

Founder and CIO Fabian Chrobog said the fundraising validates “the consistency of our approach” and NorthWall’s ability to craft solutions that resonate with investors and counterparties alike. With headcount slated to hit 40 by year-end, the firm plans to lean further into complex, situational credit born of bank deleveraging, regulatory shifts and sponsors’ need for certainty of execution.

SRZ Digs into Details of Tillis Bill

By John Freund |

Sen. Thom Tillis’s Tackling Predatory Litigation Funding Act, now folded into the Senate Finance Committee’s draft reconciliation package, would graft a stand-alone Chapter 50B onto the Internal Revenue Code and impose a punishing 40.8 percent flat levy on “qualified litigation proceeds.” The Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ) alert warns that the proposal overrides flow-through taxation, sweeps in virtually any entity—from partnerships and S-corps to sovereign wealth funds—and could chill ordinary-course lending by labeling collateralized credit facilities as “litigation financing agreements.”

A LinkedIn post from SRZ partner Boris Ziser underscores the breadth of the draft: the tax would hit domestic and foreign investors alike, deny offsetting losses, and trigger a 20.4 percent withholding obligation on plaintiffs and law firms that disburse any proceeds. Exemptions are narrow—fundings under $10,000 or debt-like arrangements capped at the greater of 7 percent or twice the 30-year Treasury yield—while long-standing preferences such as the portfolio-interest exemption and sovereign immunity would be swept aside. SRZ calculates that investors routing recoveries through a corporation could face an effective federal rate approaching 65 percent after dividend taxation, and even partnership structures would see double taxation because partners’ basis would not increase for proceeds taxed at the entity level.

Beyond funders, the bill’s catch-all definition of “litigation financing agreement” risks ensnaring securitizations, DIP financings, subrogation purchases, and other credit instruments whenever a borrower is a named litigant. By applying to taxable years beginning January 1, 2026—without grandfathering—it could retroactively erode returns on capital already deployed.

What it means for the market: If this language survives reconciliation, funders may rethink U.S. deployment models, while credit investors could demand covenants shielding them from inadvertent 40.8 percent exposure. The proposal also revives the broader policy debate: will Washington’s next move be bespoke tax regimes for other “disfavored” financial niches, or a push toward clearer, industry-wide regulation?

MAGA Influencers Support Legal Funding in Pushback Against Senator Tillis’ Bill

By John Freund |

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) has sparked a fierce backlash from MAGA influencers online, who are taking issue with Sen. Tillis' newly introduced legislation that aims to slap a 41% tax on third-party litigation finance agreements. Critics warn the measure would effectively choke off capital that plaintiffs rely on to challenge deep-pocketed corporations, tilting the playing field back toward defendants.

An article in the Daily Caller argues the proposal “hogties” a tool that ordinary Americans use to combat what author Will Hild brands “woke capitalism.” By raising the cost of capital, the bill could dissuade funders from backing suits against headline-making defendants—Bank of America, Uber and Nationwide are cited as companies that stand to gain if litigation funding dries up.

The Daily Caller's article was quickly snapped up by a cadre of right-wing influencers who have begun sounding off on the alleged harms this bill would cause for ordinary Americans.

Robby Starbuck, the influential 'anti-woke' crusader, posted on X: "How does a little guy stand any chance if they go up against a woke megacorp? Nearly the only way is litigation financing where a wealthy 3rd party funds the suit. As written now @SenThomTillis’ bill is a mega corporations dream."

Jenna Ellis took things a step further, accusing Sen. Tillis of deception: "Tillis has deceptively marketed his bill as taxing “foreign” litigation funding — when in reality it subjects all litigation funders to a 41% levy — intended to drive away investors. The effect would be that Americans fighting woke corporations will lose one of the few tools needed to fight back."

Kurt Schlichter added: "Every American has a right to bring a lawsuit. It’s nobody’s business how they fund it. And lawsuits are hugely expensive. This is a way to keep people from suing - it doesn’t start bad lawsuit. It stops good ones."

It seems we have a mini-Republican civil war brewing over the issue of legal funding. Sen. Tillis is a Republican, but that hasn't stopped the MAGA faithful from backing legal funding in a bit to help them take down 'woke corporations.'

LFJ will continue to follow this story as it develops.

Burford Fires Opening Salvo Against Senate Tax Hike

By John Freund |

The world’s largest litigation financier wasted no time responding to Capitol Hill’s surprise tax gambit. Hours after the Senate draft dropped, Burford Capital issued a statement warning that taxing funding profits at ordinary rates would “make it more expensive for businesses to secure litigation financing” and could stall innovation.

Burford Capital notes that the House version of the reconciliation bill omits any mention of litigation finance and stresses that reconciliation rules limit unrelated revenue raisers, foreshadowing a procedural challenge. The firm also highlights the draft’s retroactivity, arguing that investors priced cases under existing tax assumptions and could face punitive clawbacks if rules change midstream.

Market reaction was swift: Burford’s London-listed shares dipped 3 percent before recovering as analysts handicapped the bill’s prospects. Rival funders privately debate strategy—some push for a technical carve-out, others want the clause scrapped entirely. Defense counsel predict a burst of settlement offers aimed at closing cases before any rate hike can bite.

Burford’s rapid intervention shows the industry cannot afford silence while its business model is rewritten. Expect funders to beef up government-relations teams, demand wider tax indemnities from claimholders, and explore non-U.S. opportunities should Washington decide their profits look more like wages than capital gains.

CANDEY Taps Former Burford Exec to Bolster Funding Offering

By John Freund |

Boutique disputes firm CANDEY has made a strategic addition to its partnership ranks, bringing on former Burford Capital executive Robin Ganguly. With a career that spans high-stakes litigation and cross-border insolvency work at Linklaters and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Ganguly also brings deep expertise from the litigation funding and insurance sectors—making him a key hire as CANDEY expands its risk-sharing capabilities.

A press release from CANDEY highlights Ganguly’s trajectory through Burford, where he led the global insolvency practice, followed by litigation risk roles at Aon and The Fidelis Partnership. At Fidelis, Ganguly underwrote high-value legal risk and managed transactional insurance solutions, further honing his understanding of bespoke risk mitigation in complex disputes.

His arrival coincides with the firm’s recent launch of CANDEY CAPITAL (BVI) Limited, a litigation fund dedicated to financing claims arising from insolvency and distressed situations. This latest addition rounds out CANDEY’s offering, which already includes CFAs, DBAs, and litigation insurance. Ganguly’s hire, coupled with the insolvency expertise of CANDEY partner David Harby, signals a deliberate effort to deepen the firm’s footprint in asset recovery and contentious insolvency.

“CANDEY is a firm that has risk-taking in its DNA,” said managing partner Ashkhan Candey. “Robin’s experience in funding and insurance significantly enhances our offering.”

Geradin Partners Expands into Germany with Key Hires from Hausfeld and Osborne Clarke

By John Freund |

Marking a significant expansion of its European footprint, Geradin Partners has announced the opening of new offices in Berlin and Cologne, bolstered by the arrival of Thomas Höppner from Hausfeld and Thomas G. Funke from Osborne Clarke.

According to a press release from Geradin Partners, this move positions the boutique competition firm to deepen its pan-European practice and strengthen its presence in Germany’s critical antitrust and tech regulation landscape. Höppner, who was Hausfeld’s first German partner in 2015, played a leading role in establishing the firm’s German operations. He brings with him a team that shares his “challenger mindset,” a hallmark of both his time at Hausfeld and his vision for the future at Geradin.

Funke, previously a partner at Osborne Clarke and well-regarded for his litigation prowess, joins to co-lead the German offices. Together, the two lawyers are expected to expand Geradin’s work on complex antitrust litigation and regulatory matters, particularly as European enforcement ramps up in the tech sector. Founding partner Damien Geradin said the hires “solidify our ability to offer top-tier competition and regulatory advice across Europe.”

As Europe’s legal and regulatory landscape continues to evolve, the German expansion of Geradin Partners may point to broader shifts in the litigation and legal funding ecosystem—where cross-border capability, strategic litigation, and competition expertise are becoming essential assets.