Burford Capital’s industry-leading legal finance team continues to grow

Burford Capital’s industry-leading legal finance team continues to grow

Burford Capital, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today announces it is further enhancing its industry-leading team and legal finance offerings to clients. In addition to new hires in New York, Washington and Chicago, Senior Vice President Dr. Jörn Eschment has relocated to Switzerland to oversee the growth of Burford’s substantial business in the DACH region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Christopher Bogart, CEO of Burford Capital, said: “As the industry leader with a $4.8 billion portfolio, we continue to build Burford’s team to meet the needs of our clients and the continuing growth of our business.

“At Burford, we place significant emphasis on a collaborative culture, with strong intellectual and interpersonal dynamics at the heart of our organization. As we add experts to our team, we look for intelligent, thoughtful and creative individuals who always try to expand upon what is possible—which we believe we have found with each of these new additions.

“We are pleased to announce these new hires and Jörn’s move to the DACH region, which continue to amplify our position as the gold standard in commercial legal finance.”

The composition of Burford’s global team of over 140 employees – 66 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.

Further growth of Burford’s industry-leading investment team

  • Apoorva Patel has joined Burford in Washington, DC, as a Vice President with a focus on assessing legal risk in international arbitration, a topic about which he writes and speaks regularly as a leader in several global and national lawyers’ organizations focused on international dispute resolution. Prior to joining Burford, he was most recently Counsel in WilmerHale’s international arbitration and international litigation practices. Mr. Patel graduated from Harvard Law School, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Harvard Negotiation Law Review. He earned his bachelor’s degree in public policy from Duke University, where he graduated magna cum laude. 
  • Gabriela Bersuder has joined Burford in New York as a Vice President. She previously practiced as a litigator at Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler, where she represented Fortune 500 companies, food and beverage manufacturers and large corporations in complex commercial litigations, arbitrations and mediations. She clerked for the Honorable John G. Koeltl (Southern District of New York) and Honorable Christopher F. Droney (Second Circuit). Ms. Bersuder earned her law degree from Duke University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia University.
  • Peter McLaughlin has joined Burford in Chicago as a Vice President. Prior to Burford, he was a litigator at Sidley Austin, where he specialized in conducting investigations related to securities and healthcare regulation and served as counsel for jury trials, bankruptcy proceedings and arbitration hearings. He clerked for the Honorable James B. Zagel of the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Prior to earning a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law, he was a trading analyst at Credit Suisse. Mr. McLaughlin is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Dedicated staff to pursue business opportunities in DACH region

  • Dr. Jörn Eschment, Senior Vice President, has relocated to Zug, Switzerland, to oversee the growth of Burford’s substantial business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining Burford’s investment team in London in 2018, he practiced international commercial arbitration and litigation at Herbert Smith Freehills in Hong Kong and at Schellenberg Wittmer in Zurich. Dr. Eschment read law at the universities of Freiburg, Liverpool, Marburg and Passau, graduating with the German Staatsexamen, an LLM in European law and a doctorate in public international law, all with distinction. He also holds a master’s from the War Studies Department at King’s College London.

Additional talent augments new business origination team 

  • Bill Walker has joined Burford in Washington, DC, as a Director, building on a career spanning consulting, in-house and law firm roles. Most recently he expanded Deloitte’s law-focused business development efforts with key clients at Fortune 500 companies, publicly traded middle-market companies and law firms. Previously he founded Ansun Management Partners, a boutique professional services firm, was a corporate attorney specializing in complex corporate transactions at several large multi-national law firms and was an in-house lawyer at the American Red Cross. Mr. Walker earned his JD from the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he served as articles editor of the Connecticut Journal of International Law, and his bachelor’s in economics from College of the Holy Cross. 

Global organization strengthened with top talent across business functions

  • Chermia S. Hoeffner has joined Burford as Vice President, Human Resources. Prior to joining Burford, she was Head of Human Resources at the National Audubon Society, where she led the human resources team, implemented organization-level job architecture and developed policies, procedures and initiatives crucial to the overall strategy at Audubon. Ms. Hoeffner has also worked in human resources roles at TIAA-CREF, Mercer and Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP. She has over two decades of experience managing a broad range of HR functions at global organizations. Ms. Hoeffner graduated with an MBA in management from Pace University and a bachelor’s in English from SUNY-Albany.
  • David Helfenbein has joined Burford as Vice President, Public Relations. He has over a decade of experience in litigation and legal communication, crisis management, public affairs, government relations and public policy. Prior to joining Burford, he worked as an Associate Director at Finsbury Glover Hering and held senior roles at several public relations firms and branding agencies. He began his career working in the US Senate, followed by the US Department of State. Mr. Helfenbein earned his law degree from the School of Law at Washington University in St. Louis and his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.
  • Ilya Podolskiy, CPA, CGMA, CRMA, Cr. FAC, has joined Burford as Vice President, Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Compliance. Mr. Podolskiy has over a decade of experience implementing audit and SOX strategies. He was previously a SOX Manager for Sirius Group and for Assured Guaranty. Prior to that, Mr. Podolskiy held roles with internal audit functions including Senior Internal Auditor for American International Group (AIG) and Tokyo Marine North American Services (TMNAS). Mr. Podolskiy earned his bachelor’s in accounting from CUNY Hunter College and his master’s in taxation from Villanova School of Law.
  • Phillip Lu has joined as Head of Burford’s Project Management Office, with responsibility for Burford’s program/project management, business analysis and strategic planning capabilities. He was previously a Director at KPMG, where he evaluated and developed new digital and data strategies, technologies and business models; he also served as a Senior Manager at EY. Mr. Lu began his career as a management consultant and held technology strategy and project management roles at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. He earned his bachelor’s in economics from New York University.

About Burford Capital

Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk managementasset 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 principal offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore and Sydney.

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New North Litigation Capital Launches, Backed by £50 Million in Senior Secured Financing from Pollen Street Capital

By John Freund |

Pollen Street Capital ("Pollen Street") today announces a new senior secured credit facility of up to £50 million to New North Litigation Capital (“New North”). New North is a commercial litigation finance company and a direct subsidiary of Capital Law, a Cardiff based law firm founded in 2006.

Capital Law has a strong track record in commercial litigation, having closed over 400 claimant cases since 2001 with a 95% win rate. Drawing on its senior leadership and experienced disputes team, Capital Law launched New North to address the underserved small to mid-market segment of commercial litigation market. 

New North will be the only litigation financier in the UK owned and operated by practicing lawyers, bringing their day to day lived experience of handling mid-market litigation into pricing the risk and the funding investment decisions.

Christopher Nott, Founder and CEO of New North commented: “We are pleased to work with Pollen Street on this financing to launch New North Litigation Capital. The funding supports us to bridge a critical gap by funding claims that are often deemed too small by other players in the market. We are excited to work with the Pollen Street team as we create this new kind of litigation funding.”

Connor Marshall-Mckie, Investment Director at Pollen Street, commented:New North addresses an important gap in the litigation funding space, focusing on smaller mid-market commercial litigation. With the significant opportunity available and the deep experience of the leadership team from Capital Law we are excited to partner with the team to support their growth.”

About Pollen Street

Pollen Street is a fast-growing and high-performing private capital asset manager. Established in 2013, the firm has built deep capability across the real estate, financial and business services sectors aligned with mega-trends shaping the future of the industry. Pollen Street manages over €7bn AUM across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of over 95 professionals.

Burford’s Q2 Profits Surge on New Capital

By John Freund |

Burford Capital has delivered its strongest quarterly performance in two years, buoyed by a swelling pipeline of high-value disputes and a fresh infusion of investor cash.

A press release in PR Newswire reveals that the New York- and London-listed funder more than doubled revenue and profitability in the three months to 30 June 2025. CEO Christopher Bogart credited “very substantial levels of new business” for the uptick, noting that demand for non-recourse financing remains “as strong as we’ve ever seen.”

The stellar quarter follows a lightning-quick, two-day debt offering in July that raised $500 million—capital Burford says will be deployed across a growing roster of commercial litigations, international arbitrations, and asset-recovery campaigns. Management also highlighted significant progress in portfolio rotations, underscoring the firm’s ability to monetise older positions while writing new ones at scale. Investors will get a deeper dive when Burford hosts its earnings call today at 9 a.m. EDT.

Burford’s results arrive amid heightened regulatory chatter in Washington and Westminster, yet the numbers suggest the industry’s largest player is unfazed—for now—by talk of disclosure mandates and tax levies. The firm emphasised that its legal-finance, risk-management and asset-recovery businesses remain uncorrelated to broader markets, a pitch that continues to resonate with pension funds and endowments hunting for alternative yield.

For litigation-finance insiders, Burford’s capital-raising prowess and improving margins could have ripple effects: rival funders may face stiffer competition for marquee cases, while law-firm partners might leverage the firm’s deeper pockets to negotiate richer portfolio deals.

International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) Announces End of Year Gala and Inaugural Legal Finance Awards

By John Freund |

 The International Legal Finance Association is pleased to announce its annual End-of-Year Gala Dinner on November 13, 2025.  The event will take place at The Law Society in London, bringing together leading figures from across the legal finance industry for an evening of celebration and reflection on the year’s achievements.  

The dinner will be accompanied by the inaugural Legal Finance Awards.  The awards are designed to recognize and honor excellence across the legal finance ecosystem. They will spotlight the achievements of funders, law firms, brokers, advisors, and other key contributors to the continued growth and innovation of the industry. Nominations for the awards are now open, with the nomination form available here

“The Gala Dinner is a chance for our members and guests to gather in person and celebrate the progress we've made over the year,” said Rupert Cunningham, Global Director of Growth and Membership Engagement at ILFA. “We are especially excited to launch the Legal Finance Awards, which will shine a light on the outstanding work and impact of professionals across our field.”

Tickets for the Gala are on sale now, with discounted pricing available for ILFA members.  More information can be found here.