Content for the Public

A survey of law firm partners commissioned by Harbour on post pandemic strategies revealed that:

• 31% of those surveyed said their firms are actively considering an IPO in the next 12-18 months
• 50% said the pandemic had presented new opportunities for their firm
• 80% felt their senior leadership team should embrace innovation to deliver growth
• Only 22% of respondents said their firms had ruled out credit facilities with third party funders over the next 12-18 month

A legal claim seeking compensation worth up to £73m for routine overcharging on train tickets affecting an estimated 3.2 million passengers has been filed against the operator of one of Britain’s busiest commuter railway networks.

Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a global private equity firm specializing in litigation and legal finance, has announced the hiring of new senior executive Michael Callahan.

LawCash, Momentum Funding, and Ardec Funding, three companies that have pioneered the legal financial services industry for over 20 years, announced their new unified brand, Cartiga.

Woodsford, the global litigation finance and ESG business, has announced further expansion with the appointment of Hon. Michael Barker QC to its Investment Advisory Panel and Deborah Mazer, Hugh Tait, Diane Chisomu and Oscar Moore to its global executive team.

On Wednesday, November 10th, Litigation Finance Journal hosted a special digital conference titled Innovations in Litigation Funding. The event featured a panel discussion on disruptive technologies within Litigation Finance, including blockchain, AI and crowdfunding platforms. Panelists included Curtis Smolar (CS), General Counsel of Legalist, David Kay (DK), Executive Chairman and Chief Investment Officer of Liti Capital, Cormac Leech (CL), CEO of AxiaFunder, and Noah Axler (NA) Co-founder and CEO of LawCoin. The panel was moderated by Stephen Embry (SE), founder of Legal Tech blog TechLaw Crossroads. 

Experity Ventures LLC (EV) the parent company for several technology driven specialty finance business units that are focused on the litigation finance space has acquired 100% of the equity of New York based Anchor Fundings. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Kroll Bond Rating Agency (KBRA) assigns preliminary ratings to two classes of notes issued by Oasis 2021-2 LLC (“Oasis 2021-2”), a litigation finance ABS transaction.

Litigation Capital Management Limited (AIM:LIT), an alternative asset manager specialising in dispute financing solutions internationally, announces the delivery of an award in favour of the funded party in an international arbitration, under the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration) rules.  The arbitration, seated in London and brought under the rules of the LCIA was for the determination of a construction dispute relating to a development in the Middle East.

USClaims (USClaims.com), the longest continuously operating pre-settlement funding firm in the U.S., today announced its $77.5MM 144A litigation finance securitization. This marks the company’s seventh securitization transaction involving this asset class.  It primes USClaims to continue its run of impressive growth across the United States.

London’s specialist competition court, the Competition Appeal Tribunal (the “Tribunal”) has given the green light to rail passengers to seek compensation for overcharging by the Southeastern and South Western rail franchises by not making ‘boundary fares’ sufficiently available to consumers.  In a judgment delivered today, the Tribunal has ordered that the claims, issued on behalf of millions of rail passengers, can now proceed to trial.  The standalone claim was the first of its kind to be filed in the UK and is estimated to be worth around £93m in damages for rail users.

Global, sector-focused law firm HFW has partnered with Litigation Capital Management Limited (LCM) to secure the first funding for a domestic arbitration in Singapore, which is now permissible following changes in Singaporean regulations.

The following article was contributed by John J. Hanley, Partner at Rimon Law. 

Litigation financing is on the rise in the United States and provides some claimants a valuable means for paying the costs of pursuing a legal claim. Lawyer involvement in litigation financing transactions raises many ethical issues for a lawyer such as competence, duty of loyalty, the potential waiver of privilege and interference by a third party, to name a few.

Legal-Bay, the Pre-Settlement Funding Company, reports increased funding for victims of wrongful termination. In light of a recent lawsuit brought against popular gaming company Activision Blizzard, Legal-Bay is expanding their underwriting department to handle the increase in applications being filed by women.

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.