It’s estimated that third-party funders put up over $2.3 billion a year to help get lawsuits off the ground. Despite those staggering numbers, the industry is poised for further growth. As COVID-related delays and work stoppages continue, the need for legal funding is expected to surge.
Burford Capital Limited, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today released a business update on its 2020 activities. All figures in this disclosure are unaudited. Certain definitions are provided below; additional definitions, reconciliations and information are set out in Burford’s 2020 Interim Report, which is available on our website at the following address: www.burfordcapital.com/shareholders. As previously disclosed, Burford will announce full preliminary results for the year ended December 31, 2020 on March 24, 2021 at 08.00am EDT / 12.00pm GMT / 1.00pm CET.
After a forced liquidation in 2019, Neil Woodford is back. The former “Oracle of Oxford” announced his new business venture, WCM Partners, after a public apology for what transpired in his last business. The new venture will be based in Jersey and Buckinghamshire.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg continues his assault on class actions by making permanent what was meant to be a temporary regulatory shield. The extension of the COVID-inspired policy means that corporations breaching their disclosure obligations may now only be subjected to civil penalties in situations where they acted knowingly and with negligence or recklessness.
More often than not, corporate legal departments have their own preferred provider network of law firm partners. Periodically, these networks are reevaluated and updated to streamline strategy or control costs. These occasional reviews have become more frequent, and requests for proposals (RFPs) are up 25% from where they were in 2017. As restructuring and budget shortfalls are becoming increasingly common thanks to COVID, these panel reviews are likely to continue.
As COVID continues to ravage businesses, insolvencies and breach of contract lawsuits have skyrocketed. In India, businesses are enduring a crash in sales and revenue. They also lack the mechanisms needed to effectively address the sharp rise in litigation.
A settlement between kiwifruit growers and the Crown has finally been reached. Ray Smith, director of the Ministry for Primary Industries has stated that all parties agreed to move forward and bring the case—which has been running since 2014—to a close.
It’s no secret that an increase in insolvency filings looms on the horizon. Debt restructuring, government relief programs, and belt-tightening can only take a business so far. What many businesses don’t realize is that third-party legal funding can provide financial wiggle room.
A global pandemic may have brought sweeping changes, but it hasn’t slowed the filing of new cases. Early numbers suggest that new cases are being filed at about the same levels as the previous year, or higher. ICSID reported 58 new ICSID Convention and Additional Facility arbitrations last year—the most ever. SIAC also reported a record-high number of new cases, topping 1,000 for the first time ever.
GLS Capital operates one of the world’s largest private investment firms focused on litigation finance. The GLS team is comprised of investment professionals that provide financial solutions for complex legal matters, specializing in commercial litigation, arbitration, law firm financing and patent infringement litigation, including Hatch-Waxman litigation.
About 350 farmers have already registered in the class action suit against Fonterra, but attorney David Burstyner, says that’s not enough. The founding partner of Adley Burstyner has expressed concern that some farmers might be hoping to benefit from the case without attending meetings or becoming involved.
A recent survey from Omni Bridgeway and the 2020 ACC in-house Legal Virtual Conference suggests that an inability to work litigation costs into corporates’ budgets is what is spurring the rising interest in litigation funding. A panel discussion at the conferenced dissected how legal finance can assist in-house legal teams to manage risk and monetize legal assets.
As commercial litigation grows in popularity, the issue of security for costs looms large. Recently, the Court of Appeals, via Rowe et al vs Ingenious Media Holdings plc et al set a precedent about providing a cross-undertaking in damages when seeking security for costs.
The following article is part of an ongoing column titled ‘Investor Insights.’
Brought to you by Ed Truant, founder and content manager of Slingshot Capital, ‘Investor Insights’ will provide thoughtful and engaging perspectives on all aspects of investing in litigation finance.
Londoners like Chief Executive Andrew Bailey are staunch adherents to the adage ‘Keep Calm and Carry On.’ With that in mind, onlookers were stunned at the outburst that occurred during Bailey’s recent appearance in front of the Treasury Select Committee. There to answer questions regarding Dame Elizabeth Gloster’s report, Bailey ended up lambasting the performance of the Financial Conduct Authority.
Neil Purslow didn’t intend to become an investment manager when he entered the legal world. Before long, however, he began a love affair with commercial litigation. This led to Purslow developing a broad knowledge base that included mastering the intricacies of the corporate and commercial fields.
This past Thursday, LFJ hosted a digital conference that featured insights from various institutional investors active in the litigation funding sector. The panel – moderated by Ed Truant (ET) of Slingshot Capital – consisted of Jonathan Rix (JR), Senior Associate at UK-based PE firm Partners Capital, Kendra Corbett (KC), Principal on the Investment team of independent asset manager Cloverlay, and David Demeter (DD), Investment Director of Davidson College’s $1Bn endowment fund.
The event also featured a keynote address from Charles Agee, founder of Westfleet Advisors, a litigation funding advisory firm. Charles discussed the key findings of his 2020 Litigation Finance Market Report–the most holistic industry survey on the market.
Omni Bridgeway is poised to grow its services for German clients. With that in mind, the firm has added Anna-Maria Quinke to its team. Quinke is an anti-trust litigation specialist who will now serve as Senior Legal Counsel as well as an Investment Manager.
New investment fund Sandfield Capital has launched this week to tackle an increasingly challenging area of litigation that remains poorly served by the market. Steven D’Ambrosio, a former Finance Director at Close Brothers Premium Finance, has conceived and built a number of highly-successful ventures in the financial and legal sectors and remains extremely passionate about creating and tailoring funding solutions. Now, with Sandfield Capital, he hopes to enable real change in the sector for the good of those struggling to engage with legal services.
Hosted by Jim Batson, the newest episode of Omni Bridgeway’s podcast features Ariana Tadler, founder of Tadler Law. Baston runs Omni’s New York office and serves as Senior Investment Manager. Tadler is an accomplished class action litigator and a global authority on e-Discovery. She is a founding member of Meta-e Discovery, which does consulting and data hosting.
An upcoming meeting of Fronterra milk suppliers promises to provide information about the developing class action. Fronterra, a major milk processor, is accused of engaging in deceptive and misleading conduct by failing to price match another major milk processor—Murray Goulburn.
In the past year, COVID has wreaked financial havoc, business interruption, and court delays. It has also led to spikes in specific types of litigation. With that in mind, Litigation Funding is enjoying a resurgence that appears to be here to stay. A legal firm that typically relies on fees from clients may find itself in dire financial straits. Even a firm that’s meeting its goals for billable hours may find that clients are less able to pay.
California’s Closing the Justice Gap Working Group is exploring possibilities for amendments to the Rules of Professional Conduct as part of a move to boost access to justice.
The following article was contributed by John Hanley and Douglas Schneller of Rimon Law, P.C.
An issue that keeps some litigation funders up at night concerns the possibility of a claimant filing for bankruptcy after receiving funding and before their underlying case is resolved. Proceeds from the case may become property of the bankruptcy estate and made available to the transferor’s creditors. A carefully drafted litigation funding agreement (“LFA”) can increase the likelihood that the right to receive a portion of litigation proceeds is legally isolated (like the island in the picture above) and beyond the reach of the transferor’s creditors or a bankruptcy trustee.[1]
On a recent episode of the Litigation Finance Podcast, Grant Farrar of Arran Capital discussed his firm’s value proposition as the only litigation funder focused solely on public sector financing. Grant explains why public sector funding merits its own categorization, what the sticking points are in convincing politicians and others of litigation funding’s value, and what his expectations are for future growth in this rapidly-evolving space.
In this post-Brexit world, London has long positioned itself as a global destination for disputes. A new Court of Appeal judgment clarifying laws relating to Damages Based Agreements helps support that goal. The recent ruling affirms the importance of DBAs, allowing greater access to justice.
