In the early days of litigation funding, legal firms and funders were separate entities. As the industry has grown more widely accepted, an increasing number of law firms are teaming up with funders to offer clients an array of new services. Now some are questioning whether this is really a positive development.
Gately, the first law firm to list publicly in the UK, recently announced a GBP 20 million litigation funding arm. Expected to begin in early 2022, the funding arm will specialize in claims related to insolvency, investor and shareholder disputes, fraud, and asset protection and recovery.
Pretium, a specialized investment management firm with more than $26 billion in assets, today announced that it has established a legal opportunities investment team. Pretium’s legal opportunities team will work with corporations and law firms to identify and invest in legal and commercial opportunities where its team has deep knowledge and experience and that offer attractive return potential for investors. Areas of investment will include high value complex disputes between businesses, arbitrations, antitrust, patent and intellectual property, bankruptcy, distressed debt and insolvency and monetization of judgments and awards. Pretium will not be investing in consumer litigation finance.
An investor group led by asset recovery funder Drumcliffe LLC has purchased 1,138,245 shares in Odyssey Marine Exploration, Inc. (NASDAQ:OMEX) (“Odyssey”), from Epsilon Acquisitions LLC in a private transaction exempt from the registration requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.
Per Australian law, Omni Bridgeway has registered with ASIC as a litigation funding scheme. This statement has been distributed to all applicable parties with an interest in the appeals in Halifax Investment Services Pty Ltd v Loo, and Halifax New Zealand limited v Loo, for Category 1 Investors.
According to research from Westfleet Advisors, at least 95% of cases pitched to third-party funders are rejected. Litigation funding is increasing in popularity and new entrants are always entering the space. But that hardly means securing getting a funding agreement is a sure thing.
As lawyers, courts, and plaintiffs develop an appreciation for Litigation Finance, competition becomes increasingly robust. Demand for funding is up, as are the number of new funders throwing their hats into the ring. There’s a wide array of funding entities now, and they vary in terms of preferred case size, minimum and maximum deployments, jurisdiction, commercial or industry specialties, and more.
