In a sign of how law firms might be growing more cost-conscious, Trans-Atlantic legal firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner cut its workforce by 4% globally as part of its newly adopted strategic plan. This included closing one office in Beijing, and intensifying focus on specific areas of practice.
Patent litigation cases have soared dramatically since the beginning of the pandemic. Frank DeCosta of Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, knows that companies are leveraging IP assets with strategic litigation—which is more valuable now than ever before.
Indiana Resources is still pursuing its case against the government of Tanzania. The case deals with the alleged expropriation of the southern African Ntaka nickel project. Indiana’s claim now exceeds $95 million, with the first hearing scheduled for next month.
Law firm Leigh Day is on its way to getting justice for the roughly 4,000 investors in the now-defunct Woodford Equity Income Fund against Link Fund Solutions. In fact, the corporate directors could find themselves in High Court within the next few months.
Influence. It’s one of the key concerns that lawmakers have about third-party litigation funding. The fear is that funders, who do not have a direct connection to a legal dispute, yet fund it in the hopes of earning a share of the award, may unduly influence decisions about the case that may adversely impact courts, plaintiffs, or defendants. So what happens when funded cases involve one or more federal governments?
Litigation Finance began as a way to expand access to the legal system for those who could not otherwise afford it. Funders could provide non-recourse cash to a promising case in exchange for a percentage of any award. If the case fails, the funder loses its investment. Third-party legal funding is still used this way, but has also expanded to portfolio funding, claims monetization, and more.
Partners Capital has been through a lot in the last year. Arjun Raghavan became the CEO in July of last year. Since then, the firm has hired a new managing director and a head of ESG. Last month, Colin Pan departed as CIO. Despite the internal reshuffling and the impact of COVID, Partners Capital reportedly enjoyed its best year ever.
Siltstone Capital, LLC (“Siltstone”), a Houston, Texas based investment and advisory firm, announced the successful closing of Siltstone Capital Litigation Fund, L.P. (the “Fund”). Siltstone, through its affiliate Litigo Financial, LLC (“Litigo”), will invest in commercial litigation across the United States, and welcomes the opportunity to provide capital to litigants to pursue their claims fully. The Fund will focus on commercial litigation, with a unique focus on energy and patent litigation.
Litigation funders already know that legal assets can be a source of revenue for businesses—especially those left strapped for operating funds during COVID. The problem? Finance departments may not realize funding is an option. To bridge this knowledge gap, one leading funder conducted an informal survey of finance professionals.
A new survey by Blickstein Group and Legal Value Network suggests that large law firms may be more open to the idea of non-traditional fee arrangements. At the same time, more than half of the survey respondents assert that attorneys’ resistance to change is the most difficult aspect of adopting new payment models.
Deminor Recovery Services announces the closing of a financing round consisting of equity, senior bank loans and mezzanine finance for an amount up to €40 million to support its rapidly growing litigation funding activities globally.
Louise Trayhurn, Executive Director of Legis Finance, sat down with LFJ to discuss a broad range of industry topics, including Legis’ bespoke approach to managing client relationships, the various funding and insurance products her company offers, the growing trend of GCs and CFOs extracting more value out of their legal assets, and what trends she predicts for the future of the industry.
A recent panel discussion held by the British Institute of International and Comparative Law included partners from Hogan Lovells Matthew Felwick and Valerie Kenyon, along with Augusta Maciuleviciute of BEUC, Rhonson Salim of Ashton Law School, and Therium Capital Management’s Neil Purslow. Together, they discussed the EU Representative Actions Directive.
Exton Advisors, a leading financial advisory firm in litigation, is launching a unique range of ‘special situations’ services designed to help companies look at their disputes in an entirely new way. The move is in response to the increasing economic uncertainty brought about by the global pandemic and sees the firm creating a range of advisory service lines designed to help corporates and their legal teams find the right funding products to support their litigation and unlock potential working capital at a critical time.
Despite Quibi’s failure to corner the short-form Netflix market, its IP dispute with Eko is still very much alive. Eko is being funded by Elliott Management—which has fought Quibi’s every attempt to get through the discovery process. In fact, Elliott tried to quash an SDNY subpoena investigating how much Elliott knows as the legal funder of the case.
A recent roundtable of law firm leaders featured Jason Peltz of Bartlit Beck, Frank Ryan of DLA Piper, and Jason Leckerman of Ballard Spahr. They discussed industry trends, the ongoing impact of COVID, and how to best educate the public about legal funding.
Thomas Miller, UK Insurer, has recently acquired the litigation insurance business—TheJudge Group. This merger has launched Erso Capital, a litigation finance firm with a staggering $1 billion in capital, housed within discretionary funds, single managed accounts, and co-investment funds.
Some say that Britain is in the midst of a third wave of class actions. After the US and Australian markets embraced the practice of collective actions against big businesses and governments, class actions—especially those backed by third-party legal funders—have gained popularity around the globe.
A recent roundtable of law firm leaders featured a discussion on the most challenging aspects of the COVID crisis. Moderator Christine Azar is a director at Burford and a leading litigator. Participants include Jason Leckerman, Litigation Chair at Ballard Spahr, Jason Peltz, managing partner at Barlit Beck, and Frank Ryan, Global Co-Chair and Co-CEO of DLA Piper.
