News and analysis dedicated to the commercial litigation funding sector including regulatory issues, case developments, funding activities, and more.

Recently, law firm Kirkland & Ellis announced a ten-fold increase in investment dollars towards contingency-fee plaintiff-side claims. Alternative fee arrangements have been the most profitable component of the law firm thus far, so management figures ‘why not roll the dice’ on what’s already been working? The question now is: is Kirkland’s approach a harbinger of things to come? And if so, how will this impact litigation funders down the road? 

Dividex, the international securities class action broker and case manager, wanted in on a Novo Nordisk class action after the stock shed over $50B in the wake of fraud allegations. The only problem? No litigation funders would bite, given that the Danish Pharma company would have to face the scales of justice on its home turf (international securities actions can no longer be tried in the U.S., pursuant to a 2010 Supreme Court decision). And since funding is needed to get an international securities action off the ground, the deal was dead in the water. Until, that is, Dividex packaged the deal into its own version of a portfolio funding arrangement. 

GoFundMe recently cancelled an Australian rugby player’s crowdfunded legal campaign, and the story made international headlines. Now some experts are scrutinizing the ethical and practical concerns of crowdfunding litigation; some of which will sound very familiar to litigation funders, yet others are unique to the crowdfunding niche. 

After being tossed out by the High Court, the $4 billion Therium-funded Google class action has reached the UK Court of Appeals. The lead applicant, Richard Lloyd – a former consumer rights organization director – is claiming Google owes 4.4 million Brits hundreds of pounds each for its nefarious ‘Safari Workaround’ software, which was allegedly used to spy on iPhone users.  

Law firm Phi Finney McDonald and litigation funder Therium Capital Management are filing a class action which alleges that Domino’s underpaid delivery drivers and in-store workers. Estimates put the total claim amount around AUD $100MM. 

Anyone involved in litigation would love to have a crystal ball to help predict how things will pan out. If one UK-based startup is to be believed, that crystal ball may already exist. 

Law firm Adina Thorn is bringing a class action – funded by Harbour Litigation Funding – on behalf of homeowners who experienced damage to their properties due to leaky cladding installed by the James Hardie multi-national conglomerate. The James Hardie parent company is based in Ireland, and attempting to exclude it and all international subsidiaries from liability, leaving the New Zealand subsidiary as the sole defendant. However, Thorn claims the New Zealand subsidiary is insolvent, and that the parent company should therefore be on the hook. 

Kirkland & Ellis – the nation’s largest law firm by gross revenue – has announced plans to expand its contingency-fee practice with the launch of a division that focuses on the high risk/reward fee arrangement. Kirkland has represented over 100 plaintiff-side cases on a pure contingency basis over the past decade, and now seeks to expand that number by as much as 10x.

With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce leading the effort to regulate – or even fully abolish – litigation funding, the nascent industry has already made some powerful enemies. The ‘War…

The Law Commission of New Zealand suspended its examination of litigation funding last year due to resource constraints, but in the wake of several high profile class actions funded by…

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA 20 JUNE 2019: IMF Bentham (ASX:IMF) (operating in the US and Canada as Bentham IMF) announces the launch of a new US$500 million fund (‘Fund 5’) to underwrite non-US disputes around the…

Recently, Conagra Brands and Kraft Heinz sued Tyson Foods and other chicken suppliers for allegedly conspiring to inflate prices. That comes on the back of a large antitrust claim agains…

Institutional investors continue to pour money into the litigation finance sector. The prospect of attractive returns, uncorrelated to broader equity/bond markets, which may actually increase post-recession given the influx of…

At last week’s 2nd Annual Financing, Structuring and Investing in Litigation Finance conference, hosted by IMN in New York City, the third panel of the day discussed the topic of…

UK law firm Rosenblatt went public last year, and in the process announced plans to open a litigation funding arm. The law firm now has five cases under consideration, and…

Lawdragon, a provider of free online guides for US-based legal news, has named IMF Bentham CEO Andrew Saker and Bentham IMF (the US subsidiary of IMF Bentham) CIO Allison Chock…

First there was Peter Thiel, who backed Hulk Hogan’s successful lawsuit against Gawker, and now there’s Ronald Perelman. Perelman, who runs the conglomerate MacAndrews & Forbes Group (MAFG), has been secretly…

The comment period for the NYC Bar’s recent opinion on third party funding has ended. The NYC Bar found that when funders collect a percentage of fees, the practice constitutes…