Content for the Public

Augusta, the UK’s largest funder of litigation by case volume today announces the appointment of Clara Segurola as Lead Economist.

CHICAGO – July 13, 2020 – Longford Capital today announced that Marc A. Cavan has joined the firm asDirector. Mr. Cavan will assist with investment sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring of portfolio investments, supporting Longford’s Chicago and Dallas offices.

The UK’s Legal industry generated revenues of £2.35bn in May 2020, 12% down on May last year. May 2020 was the lowest-earning month in four years, according to Office of National Statistics data released on 14^th July.

PHILADELPHIA, July 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Legal-Bay LLC, The Pre-Settlement Funding Company, announced their renewed commitment to assisting the many victims who’ve filed Essure Birth Control lawsuits, and are hoping for presettlement payouts despite court delays.

The following was contributed by Matthew Pitchers, Head of Investment Valuation at Augusta Ventures. 

I was in conversation the other day with a prospective user of our finance – a law firm who will remain nameless. The conversation was going well, very well in fact, until those seven words came up: “what is it going to cost me?”. I replied that our fee would be based on the higher of a multiple on the funds deployed or a set percentage of damages awarded. After a few seconds of silence which felt like an eternity, the response I got back was “that is very expensive, and I don’t think my client will go for it”.

CHICAGO, Illinois, July 1, 2020 — Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a global private equity firm specializing in litigation and legal finance, today announced the hiring of a Chief Marketing Officer and a Marketing Associate.

HFW, KPMG and Augusta Ventures are pleased to announce a non-exclusive project to assist companies facing problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. Together, they will provide a global ‘one-stop shop’ that can quickly support companies needing assistance by facilitating funding for supporting litigation and arbitration from Augusta, and a package of legal assistance, asset tracing and enforcement measures from HFW and KPMG.

CHICAGO, Illinois, June 30, 2020 — Forteam Investments Ltd., an investment company controlled by the American private equity firm Delta Capital Partners Management LLC (“Delta”), which is seeking approximately USD $86 million from Mariusz Świtalski and companies he controls, has secured an injunction against Świtalski and his assets.

NEW YORK (June 24, 2020) – Leading litigation funder Validity Finance has selected University of Chicago Law School law student Amber S. Stewart for its 2020 Equal Access Fellowship. The program, launched last year, provides a 10-week paid summer fellowship to first-year law students of diverse backgrounds to spend the first half of their summer at Validity learning the basic principles of litigation funding before spending the second half working at the non-profit of their choice. Validity is one of the only funders to provide such a program for first-year law students.

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. 

NEW YORK, June 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — In an effort to use its resources to bring relief and hope to those affected by unprecedented global circumstances, Tribeca Capital Group, LLC, an industry leader in pre-settlement lawsuit funding, announces that it has developed an initiative to reach lawsuit plaintiffs who have been touched by COVID-19 or have been negatively impacted by the sharp downturn in the economy.

Total Commitments Exceeding $465 Million

Parabellum Capital LLC (“Parabellum”), a leader in commercial litigation finance, today announced the final closing of its latest private investment fund, Parabellum Partners II, LP (the “Fund”), with over $465 million in commitments. The Fund is Parabellum’s second broadly-offered private investment fund since its founding in 2012.

LexShares, a leader in commercial litigation finance, today announced the launch of LexShares Marketplace Fund II (LMFII). With a $100 million target fund size, LMFII will invest in litigation-related assets offered on the LexShares platform. LMFII opens on the heels of the company’s 100th legal claim investment, making LexShares one of the most active litigation funding firms in the world.

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. 

Jersey, Channel Islands, 2^nd June 2020: Therium Access, the not-for-profit arm of global litigation funder Therium, has committed £100,000 and provided its own resources to help launch and deliver the Community Justice Fund alongside grant giving organisations focused on the provision of access to justice.

Baker Street Funding, America’s #1 Choice for Legal Funding Firm, announced today that they have launched a commercial litigation focused legal funding division. This new division will focus on commercial litigation, lawsuit loans, or advances and attorney loans. Commercial litigation is often extremely complex and time-consuming. The cost of litigating these claims has increased exponentially and Baker Street Funding finds it as an under-served market in which they can thrive.

The common law doctrine that bans champerty has been around since the middle ages. This dark age law prohibiting funding for legal cases by outside parties (who then receive a share of a winning award) is still in place in some parts of the world. But Minnesota is no longer one of those places—earlier this week, the Minnesota Supreme Court abolished the champerty doctrine.

HONG KONG, 4 June 2020:  Proceedings have been filed in Omni Bridgeway Limited‘s, (ASX:OBL) first funded international arbitration in Hong Kong since the Special Administration Region amended its Arbitration Ordinance (Cap. 609) to permit third party funding (effective February  2019).

MIAMI, June 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Leste Group is pleased to announce that Rodrigo Machado has joined its team as Managing Director of US Real Estate. Mr. Machado joined in May 2020 and will be focused on further expanding Leste Group’s Real Estate investments business across the USA, in addition to overseeing Leste Group’s existing investments in the Multifamily, Single Family Homes for Rental, Hospitality and Healthcare sectors.

TEL AVIV (June 2, 2020) – Leading U.S. litigation funder Validity Finance has opened its first international office, in Tel Aviv, recruiting prominent international-disputes lawyer Eli Schulman to head its Israel operations. Validity is the first U.S.-based funder to open an office in Israel.

NYU Law School’s Center on Civil Justice, creators of the first-of-its-kind Dispute Financing Library, will host an online, virtual conference discussing how the industry is shifting because of COVID-19.

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. 

AIM-listed Litigation Capital Management Limited (LCM), a leading international provider of disputes financing solutions, notes the announcement on 22 May 2020 by the Federal Treasurer of Australia, Josh Frydenberg, that litigation funders operating in Australia will be subject to new regulation requiring them to obtain and maintain an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL).

The UK Legal Industry generated revenues of £9.34bn in the first calendar quarter of 2020, down 6.6% on the final quarter of 2019. And while there are usually falls between Q4 and Q1 due to seasonal factors, the drop this quarter was the highest in four years, a full one percentage point greater than the drop in the same period in the prior year. The final weeks of March cover the period when Covid-19 was beginning to impact the economy.

Baker Street Funding, LLC (Baker Street), a legal funding company located in New York and South Florida, is committing to increasing their litigation funding efforts on settled cases. This type of legal funding provides contingency fee based attorney and their clients with immediate liquidity to help bridge the gap between settlement and payment distribution.

CALDWELL, N.J., May 11, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Legal-Bay LLC, the Lawsuit Settlement Funding Company, announced that they have launched a new legal funding division for commercial litigation, lawsuit loans or advances, and attorney loans for law firms. Commercial litigation cases can be extremely complex and require expansive resources for both plaintiffs and law firms to fight properly. Legal-Bay sees this as an under-served market and has built a new division to accommodate the needs of this market.

The first episode in this series is titled “An Introduction to a New Yet Old Funding Alternative” and is co-produced by West LegalEdCenter™. It will feature Jeremy Waitzman (Sugar Felsenthal Grais & Helsinger LLP); Dave Kerstein (Validity Finance LLC); Christopher Freeman (Burford Capital); Joel Cohen (Stout); and Jeffery Lula (GLS Capital, LLC).

ARDMORE, Pa., May 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Balanced Bridge Funding, LLC (“Balanced Bridge”) now offers a special financing program for plaintiffs involved in settled sex abuse cases, who have awards and are interested in receiving a portion of their award upfront.

Balanced Bridge Funding, LLC (“Balanced Bridge”), a specialty finance firm based outside Philadelphia, is ramping up their legal funding efforts to provide capital to plaintiffs and attorneys working on a contingency fee basis. Balanced Bridge’s post-settlement funding product is specifically designed to help bridge applicants from the time of settlement to final distribution of payment.