Law firm ownership has been changing in recent years. Legal professionals in Australia and the UK are leading the world regarding ownership of legal firms. Recent developments in US states like Arizona, combined with a more liberal approach on ownership from the American Bar Association, means that the tide may be turning on this issue. Other US states are considering similar measures, including California, Utah, Florida, Illinois, and Michigan.
Zachary Krug has joined Signal Capital Partners, a London based special situations fund with over $2.5B AUM, where he will be leading a new strategy for litigation finance and legal assets. Funding will be through SLF Capital Limited, a joint venture focused on legal assets.
Affirmative recovery programs are a growing trend, and with good reason. ARPs involve monetizing existing litigation once believed to be too costly or time consuming to pursue. Burford’s 2021 Legal Asset Report has some telling insights on ARPs. This year’s survey includes 378 senior financial officers of companies whose revenue is at least $50 million annually.
With the elimination of ethics Rule 5.4, the state of Arizona loosened regulations prohibiting non-attorney ownership of law firms. Not unexpectedly, this has attracted interest from several prominent litigation funders. Comparable legislation is expected in multiple states in 2022, with Michigan, North Carolina, Illinois, New York, and California already considering it.
This week, a hearing was held to determine whether a collective action against five car carriers based in Japan, Sweden, and Chile. The action will allege that more than 17 million cars were impacted by a price-fixing scheme run by the five firms that ship internationally. The case is being funded by Woodsford Litigation Funding.
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.
A survey of law firm partners commissioned by Harbour on post pandemic strategies revealed that:
LegalPay bills itself as India’s ‘first homegrown litigation finance company.’ The business was founded in 2020 by Kundan Shahi, and strives to expand the reach of legal funding as both an alternative asset class and a means to increase access to justice.
A legal claim seeking compensation worth up to £73m for routine overcharging on train tickets affecting an estimated 3.2 million passengers has been filed against the operator of one of Britain’s busiest commuter railway networks.
As litigation funding grows in popularity and legislation struggles to keep up—much attention is drawn to the outliers who fill funding opponents with fear. Unscrupulous funders get plenty of press coverage, further clouding already contentious issues.
Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a global private equity firm specializing in litigation and legal finance, has announced the hiring of new senior executive Michael Callahan.
The Australian government’s bid to reform class actions, and by extension third-party litigation funders, is nearing its climax. A parliamentary committee assembled to examine the bill has expressed support. A key argument in favor of increased legislation is that funders ostensibly make profits that are out of proportion to the risk taken and the costs incurred.
As difficult as it might be to imagine someone being misled by a Tinder communique, Sean Rad, a co-founder of the app, alleges that’s exactly what happened. Last week, Rad testified that Match Group (which also owns Hinge, OKCupid, and PlentyOfFish) undervalued Tinder by billions.
Perhaps more than any other industry, healthcare companies have scrambled to keep up with the changes brought about by COVID-19. Now that some of the changes made are destined to stay, healthcare companies are taking steps to further innovation.
ICLG’s Global Class action Symposium discussed the dynamic and evolving issues surrounding class actions and litigation funding. One takeaway is clear: attitudes about class actions and their funding are evolving with the industries themselves. Growing pains and a constant stream of regulatory changes point to new opportunities for claimants seeking compensation, and the lawyers and funders who serve them.
Woodsford, the global litigation finance and ESG business, has announced further expansion with the appointment of Hon. Michael Barker QC to its Investment Advisory Panel and Deborah Mazer, Hugh Tait, Diane Chisomu and Oscar Moore to its global executive team.
A Supreme Court decision was handed down in the Lloyd v Google appeal. And Google has a lot to be celebrating. In short, the question at hand was whether damages could be sought in a collective action over “loss of control over data,” without specifically listing the monetary or punitive damages of each individual claimant. Requiring individual loss statements from every claimant in a case impacting millions seems untenable. What happened here?
We already know that litigation funding is growing by leaps and bounds. This industry is a little over a decade old, and by 2019, had become a global industry worth nearly $40 billion. As the reach of funding grows, more businesses are learning the ways in which legal funding can monetize existing litigation assets while sharing risk.
All eyes are on Bank of America Corp v Fund Liquidation Holdings LLC, because of the issues the case is bringing before SCOTUS. In this instance, an upcoming decision has led the US Chamber of Commerce to lament the oft-repeated (but unproven) assertion that the American justice system simply cannot withstand undisclosed funding agreements.
