Content for the Public

Augusta Ventures, a specialist asset manager focussed on the litigation and disputes funding sector, has appointed SYZ Capital’s current Uncorrelated Strategies lead – Gian Kull – as its new Chief Investment Officer. The move follows Augusta’s closure of its third pool of funding in June 2021 which brought the firm’s AuM to £585m.  This enabled the firm to continue to fund an unprecedented pipeline of opportunities in high value litigation and dispute scenarios.

Burford Capital, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today announces the launch of phase two of The Equity Project, its groundbreaking initiative designed to increase diversity in the business of law.

Last week, Litigation Finance Journal held a special digital event on the evolution of corporate portfolio funding. How has portfolio funding evolved over the years? Why have corporates been slow to adopt the practice? How is COVID impacting that adoption rate? And what can funders do to convince corporates that the benefits of portfolio funding outweigh any perceived drawbacks?

Nivalion, Europe´s leading provider of legal finance solutions, announced today that it will acquire the portfolio and know-how of Carpentum Capital Ltd., a Swiss company that has been at the forefront of the development of litigation funding in Latin America, with lawyers on the ground in Argentina, Brazil and Chile.

Pretium, a specialized investment management firm with approximately $30 billion in assets, today announced that Tatiana Gutierrez and Jeannette Arazi have joined the firm as Managing Directors on its Affordable Housing and Real Estate Capital Markets teams, respectively.

Omni Bridgeway (formerly known in the US as Bentham IMF) is pleased to announce a significant expansion of its US investment team to accommodate its growth in the world’s hottest legal finance market. In addition to adding four brand new investment professionals, we are thrilled to announce the promotion of four team members who have been key players on our US team.

With demand for litigation finance continuing to grow among businesses of all sizes, leading dispute funder Validity Finance reports it has raised a new managed fund of $70 million in capital commitments. The newly raised “sidecar” fund further diversifies Validity’s business and advances its experience as an alternative asset manager.  To date, Validity’s third-party managed funds total nearly $150 million of assets under management, in addition to its permanent capital base.

Day two of of the two-day event saw a trio of panels that covered topics such as investment strategy and risk management, the interplay between fund types, and litigation finance as a tool for ESG.

Day one of the two-day 2021 LF Dealmakers conference has officially concluded. The day included a keynote address from Judge Shira A. Scheindlin, six panel discussions, and a host of networking opportunities.

The LF Dealmakers conference kicked off this morning with a keynote address from Judge Shira A. Scheindlin. The address was titled “Litigation Finance: Survey of a Shifting Landscape,” and covered four main issues: ethics, fee sharing, disclosure regulations and privileged communications between funder and attorneys.

GetSwift Technologies Limited (NEO:GSW) (“GetSwift” or the “Company”), a leading provider of last mile SaaS logistics technology, today as a result of market regulatory requirements announced that has disclosed details of its previously announced Heads of Agreement (HOA) for a settlement with law firm Phi Finney McDonald and Therium Capital Management (Australia) Pty Ltd. and Mr. Raffaele Webb (the “Applicant“) in connection with the class action proceedings before the Federal Court of Australia (the “Court“).

On the most recent episode of the Litigation Finance Podcast, Cesar Bello, Partner and Deputy General Counsel of Corbin Capital, explained how he evaluates litigation finance investments, what his ROI expectations are, and how funders can mitigate risk. Below are some key takeaways from the discussion.

Kerberos Capital Management announced today the introduction of a groundbreaking new direct lending product to law firms with a margin ratchet linked to ESG targets – the first debt product of its kind in Litigation Finance markets. The program is intended both to recognize and reward firms that have already established a commitment to advancing ESG factors in their work, and to incentivize qualifying firms to continue those efforts into the future.

Longford Capital Management, LP, a leader in commercial litigation finance, announced the final closing of its most recent fund (including a parallel fund, “Fund III”), at $682 million.  Longford’s assets under management now exceed $1.2 billion, placing it among the largest private equity firms focused on investments in legal assets.  Fund III is the third private investment fund Longford has closed since the firm began operating in 2013.

LegalPay, a start-up focused on third-party litigation finance, has announced the successful closure of its maiden litigation fund. The Arbitration Focused SPV I, a smaller ticket special purpose vehicle (SPV), designed for upper-retail investors, was launched last month, and has now been oversubscribed, a LegalPay statement said.

The 2021 Tribeca Capital Group Scholarship has concluded, with Joshua Victor declared the winner for his insightful essay on whether litigation finance expands access to justice. His conclusion is that the practice doesn’t always mean justice for those who would otherwise miss out on equitable representation.

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. 

Omni Bridgeway’s share price fell subsequent to an appeals judgment against Seqwater. The ruling overturned a 2019 judgment against the dam management company. The original ruling determined that Seqwater was liable for half of the compensation claims from floods in early 2011.

Burford Capital Limited, the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law, today announces that it will hold an investor event on Tuesday November 2, 2021 at 10.00am-12.30pm EDT / 2.00-4.30pm GMT / 3.00-5.30pm CET.

Liti Capital SA, a Swiss-based litigation funding provider that has opened up private equity investing to the masses through blockchain technology, is launching staking for its wLITI token.

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.

Stonward Litgation Funding, boutique specialized in offering bespoke solutions to finance litigation both in Europe and the Americas, has a new director and Head of Legal Assets: Guido Demarco, a legal expert with extensive experience in debt restructuring (private and sovereign), NPL strategies and legal, banking and financial project management.

The International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) has appointed Gary Barnett as Executive Director and General Counsel.  Launched 12 months ago, ILFA (ilfa.com) is the first-ever global association devoted to the growing commercial legal finance industry.

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. 

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.

Law Finance Group, a leading commercial litigation finance company, today announced that Lauren J. Harrison has joined the firm as Vice President/Investment Counselor, based in Houston, Texas.

Liti Capital’s wLITI token, a wrapped version of the Swiss company’s LITI equity token, lists on Changelly PRO, $wLITI pairs with BTC and USDT are now available for trading. This comes less than a week after listing on Bitcoin.com Exchange and less than two weeks on HitBTC. The Changelly PRO team has expressed their warm welcome to the litigation financing token.