The Coronavirus is having an impact on lawyers around the world. Right now, employers need advice on the best ways to react to employees who have contracted the virus, or those desperately trying to avoid it. From remote assignments to office closures, lawyers are needed to help companies navigate the uncharted waters of a modern pandemic.
Litigation Capital Management Limited (AIM:LIT), a leading international provider of disputes
financing solutions, announces its interim results for the six months ended 31 December 2019
(“HY20”).
CHICAGO – March 16, 2020 – Longford Capital today announced that Andrew A. Stulce joined the firm as Vice President. Mr. Stulce will assist with investment sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring of portfolio investments.
SYDNEY, 16 March 2020: Omni Bridgeway Limited, (formerly known as IMF Bentham ASX:IMF), has welcomed talented new colleagues to the team as the company continues its international expansion. The appointments include global leadership positions following the merger of IMF and Omni Bridgeway in November 2019 and important roles in Australia in response to increased appetite for dispute finance solutions. Omni Bridgeway can also announce it is expanding its footprint into New Zealand, where the firm is already active in several actions.
Legal minds Paul Haskel and Jim Walker have kept a close eye on how litigation funding is impacting legal ethics. Like many lawyers and judges, they have grave concerns and feel that some tweaks in the Code of Ethics should be considered. But how to get everyone on the same page about what needs to change?
While not legally binding, the recent NYC Bar Association opinion on litigation funding is a powerful statement on the ethics of funding and what regulations are needed. In response to this, a 25-person working group on litigation funding was assembled.
As litigation funding increases in popularity, funders find that they can take their pick of lawyers and cases to back. While on the other hand, securing the funding needed to successfully litigate a case can be a challenge. Aside from the usual considerations—potential recovery amount and time, overall merits of the case, etc.—funders look closely at the lawyer(s) involved.
A UK case involving the post office, buggy accounting software, and widespread accusations of theft was big news across the pond. After numerous sub-postmasters were accused of theft, many endured firing, public shaming, loss of property, and even jail time. The real culprit was bad accounting software made by a company called Horizon. Now, the plaintiffs are alleging that the bulk of their payout will go to the firm that financed the legal case—and not to the people who were actually hurt.
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.
International Women’s Day has come and gone. But the issues women face in the workplace—and in law firms in particular—are still present. With that in mind, Buford Capital has set aside a roughly $50 million funding pool to help balance the gender gap in litigation funding.
NEW YORK (March 10, 2020) – Litigation funder Validity Finance announced two noteworthy additions to its investment team in New York and Chicago.
Litigation Capital Management Limited (AIM:LIT), a leading international provider of litigation financing solutions, is pleased to announce the first close of a new third party fund of up to US$150 million, LCM Global Alternative Returns Fund (the Fund). In accordance with the Company’s strategy and as previously communicated to the market, the close of this Fund marks LCM’s return to managing third-party funds, following the building of a permanent source of balance sheet capital through the equity markets.
TORONTO , March 5, 2020 /CNW/ – Equitable Bank, Canada’s Challenger Bank™, is pleased to announce it acted as the sole lead arranger of a $60 million senior secured credit facility to support the recapitalization and growth of BridgePoint Financial Services Inc. (BridgePoint), Canada’s leading provider of specialized loans for the legal services market with a focus on loans to individuals involved in personal injury claims and loans/credit facilities to law firms.
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.
In 2018, the NYC Bar surprised a lot of folks by issuing a formal opinion declaring litigation funding in conflict with the Bar’s rules on fee-sharing with non-lawyers, as outlined in Rule 5.4 of the professional conduct code. The reaction within the funding community was swift, however no formal response has been delivered… until now.
2 March 2020 – FORBES VENTURES (“Forbes” or the “Company”): Establishment of Litigation Funding Securitisation Vehicle; Technology Agreement with ME Group.
DOHA, Qatar, Feb. 27, 2020 — The Swifthold Foundation, which was defrauded by Sheikh Fahad bin Ahmad bin Mohamed bin Thani Al Thani and his Qatari company, Fast Trading Group, has been patiently waiting for the Qatari Enforcement Court to enforce Swifthold’s $6 billion U.K. High Court Judgment since the Qatari Trial Court issued a Writ of Execution to formally recognize the Judgment in Qatar in the Summer of 2019.
No one will ever accuse Aussie law firm Maurice Blackburn of not being proactive. The class action king (Maurice has filed the most in Australia) is pursuing a class action claim against banking giant NAB, and plans to use a contingency-fee model. There’s just one wrinkle here: contingency-fee arrangements aren’t legal in Australia. The state of Victoria is mulling legislation that would legalize such arrangements, but hasn’t passed the final bill yet.
The business of Insurance is a complex one, full of costly legal pitfalls. This is especially true within two core components of the Insurance industry: subrogation and reinsurance. Fortunately, litigation funding provides an antidote to Insurance companies who may find themselves embroiled in legal turmoil stemming from either practice.
SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 26, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — RPX Corporation today announced that it has secured license rights to Excalibur IP’s patent portfolio for a syndicate made up of a subset of the RPX membership, while also reserving rights for additional and future members. Excalibur IP is a subsidiary of Altaba Inc., the company formerly known as Yahoo, Inc. prior to the sale of Yahoo!’s operating businesses to Verizon in 2017. The global portfolio consists of more than 2,000 patents owned by Excalibur IP.
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.
“Lawyer-Directed” litigation finance, whereby a funder forms a partnership with contingency counsel, provides an opportunity to work around some of the issues that exist in client-directed funding – most notably issues that arise when creditors or lienholders are awaiting recoupment from the client, pending successful litigation. Many funders are averse to partnering with a client that is encumbered by senior lienholders, hence many such claims go unfunded, despite the merits of the underlying case. Lawyer-directed funding provides an attractive solution.
New Zealand has been far slower to adopt litigation funding than neighboring Australia, where the practice originated. However, the funding market is surging in kiwi-land, thanks in part to local funder LPF Group, which has bankrolled some sizable claims.
CHICAGO, February 24, 2020 – Baylor Law has tapped William P. Farrell, Jr., co-founder, managing director, and general counsel of Longford Capital, to serve as an adjunct professor at the law school and to lead a course on litigation funding. The litigation funding course is a part of Baylor Law’s innovative LL.M. program in litigation management, the first program of its kind.
St. Petersburg, Russia — (ReleaseWire) — 02/19/2020 — Although the Russian litigation finance market is at an early stage of development, a surge in the interest for legal funding solutions could be observed over the last year. While third party financing for legal proceedings has previously been provided by private investors or by law firms as an auxiliary business, specialized litigation finance companies have only recently appeared on the market.
SYDNEY, 14 February 2020: IMF Bentham Limited (ASX:IMF) and Omni Bridgeway are excited to announce that IMF Bentham Limited is adopting the unified global name of Omni Bridgeway Limited, following a shareholder vote at the company’s General Meeting on 14 February 2020.
The UK Legal Industry generated revenues of £37.1bn in 2019, up 4.8% on 2018 – an all-time record, according to data released today by the Office of National Statistics. To put this in context, overall 2019 UK Services Industries turnover was £2.3tn, up 3.5%.
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.
