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Community Spotlight: Caroline Taylor, Founding Partner, Ignitis

By John Freund |

Caroline Taylor is a Founding Partner of Ignitis, an early-stage litigation funder focused on developing cases to assess viability and prepare them for full litigation. With over a decade of litigation experience, Caroline brings a unique blend of funding expertise and strategic legal insight, leveraging an extensive professional network to support cases from inception to resolution. Ignitis partners with claimants, foundations, corporate clients, lawyers, experts, funders, and other legal professionals to ensure that each case has what it needs to maximize its chance of success.

Before founding Ignitis, Caroline was a partner at a leading international collective redress firm. She played a key role in expanding the firm’s European operations, including opening offices across several countries, assembling and leading teams, and driving case development and management. Her work in securing litigation funding helped support the development of over 30 cases across Europe and the UK. Caroline’s ability to seamlessly integrate operations between U.S. and European offices proved instrumental in advancing initiatives on both sides of the Atlantic. Her deep understanding of collective redress procedures in multiple European jurisdictions, combined with her experience taking cases from concept to resolution, makes her well-suited for her role at Ignitis.

During her time in private practice, Caroline specialized in class actions, complex litigation, and personal injury cases, gaining firsthand experience of the impact corporate misconduct can have on individuals. This exposure sharpened her litigation skills and solidified her commitment to justice. Caroline also served in several leadership roles, including as a Board Member of the American Association for Justice, Chair of its Railroad Section, and as a Board and Executive Committee Member of the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association. She has received numerous accolades, including recognition by The National Trial Lawyers, Best Lawyers in America, and Super Lawyers. Caroline is a frequent speaker at international legal conferences.

She is admitted to practice in Tennessee, Florida, and Kentucky state courts, as well as in numerous federal and appellate courts in the United States and England and Wales.

Company Name and Description: Ignitis AG is an early-stage funding company. Ignitis was founded to solve a critical challenge: parties often need initial capital to develop the case into something viable to attract larger litigation funders. Essentially, to secure funding, one must first invest capital. Drawing on decades of experience in litigation and institutional investment, we are uniquely positioned to provide the capital and expertise needed to kickstart cases and drive them toward resolution. We focus solely on early-stage funding, ensuring that quality cases get the financing they need to be successful while increasing access to justice.

Company Websitewww.ignitisag.com

Year Founded: 2024

Headquarters: Zug, Switzerland

Area of Focus: We focus specifically on initial case development and early-stage funding. We put our money in at initial, risky stages, to develop the case and prepare it for full funding and filing. We not only inject capital, but we also provide expertise and advice along the way to ensure that the case has the greatest opportunity for success.

Member Quote: “Too many meritorious cases never make it to court, not because they lack merit, but because the injured parties lack the financial resources or the know-how to move forward. At Ignitis, we are committed to improving access to justice by investing in cases that other funders might overlook and offering the expertise needed for thorough case development—ensuring more individuals have their day in court.”

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John Freund

John Freund

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Community Spotlights

Community Spotlight: Craig Allsopp, Joint Head of Class Actions, Shine Lawyers

By John Freund and 4 others |

Based in Sydney, Australia, Craig Allsopp is the Joint Head of Class Actions at Shine Lawyers. Craig has over two decades of experience in class actions and large-scale litigation in both the private and public sectors. His unwavering commitment to justice has left an indelible mark on Australia’s legal landscape, positioning him as a trailblazer in shareholder dispute resolutions. Craig’s distinguished career is studded with triumphs that have shaped legal precedent. In every case he sees through, Craig strives to obtain justice for thousands of people impacted by the misconduct of corporations, the big banks and other major financial service institutions, and Australian governments. In particular, Craig has worked on some of Australia’s highest profile shareholder and social justice class actions.

Craig's dedication to legal excellence and social justice is demonstrated by the profound impact he has on the legal landscape. He has set a standard for advocacy and achieving substantive change in the pursuit of fairness and accountability, particularly in corporate and government sectors.

Company Name and Description: Shine Lawyers is an Australian law firm specialising in personal injury compensation and class actions. As one of Australia’s leading class actions firms, Shine Lawyers passionately fights to obtain justice for those who have been wronged and suffered loss at the hands of institutions or corporations.  

Company Websitehttps://www.shine.com.au/ 

Year Founded: 1976

Headquarters: Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Area of Focus: Class Actions

Member QuoteThird-party litigation funding has significantly improved access to justice in Australian class actions allowing individuals to pursue representative claims against corporations and governments for various alleged misconducts.

Westpac Announces A$130m Settlement for Flex Commissions Class Action

By Harry Moran and 4 others |

The Banking Royal Commission established by the Australian government uncovered a wide range of misconduct and failing by the country’s financial institutions, with a slew of litigation and class action claims being brought in the aftermath. Six years on from the commission’s final report, some of these class actions are only now reaching a conclusion.

An article in Reuters covers the news that the Westpac Group has agreed to settle a class action brought against it by car loan customers, over “flex commissions” paid to car dealers by Westpac and St George Finance. The provisional settlement, which is subject to court approval, is for A$130 million and would see the class action resolved without Westpac accepting any admission of liability.

The claim was brought by law firm Maurice Blackburn in 2020 on behalf of consumers who entered into a finance agreement for the purchase of a car issued under Westpac or St George’s credit licence, between 1 March 2013 to 31 October 2018. In its announcement, Westpac said that it has not paid these flex commissions to car dealers since 2018, and had ceased providing new lending through its dealer introduced auto finance business since 2022.

At the time of reporting, Maurice Blackburn had not yet issued a statement on the announced settlement.

The full announcement from Westpac Group can be read here. More information about the class action can be found on the Supreme Court of Victoria’s website.

Omni Bridgeway Appoints David Breeney as Global Chief Financial Officer

By Harry Moran and 4 others |

An announcement from Omni Bridgeway confirms the appointment of David Breeney as Global Chief Financial Officer (GCFO), having officially taken over the role on 1 March 2025. The appointment sees Breeney move up from his previous position as Deputy CFO, having first joined Omni Bridgeway as Global Head of Financial Control in November 2023.

Prior to his time at Omni Bridgeway, Breeney spent 12 years at asset management firm Challenger Limited, where he served as Financial Controller for funds management and real estate. In the announcement, Omni Bridgeway said that “the background and experience of Mr. Breeney align well with the stated strategy of accelerated transition towards a fund and asset management model.”

The announcement also revealed that the departing GCFO, Guillaume Leger, will be leading the establishment of a capital formation team to coordinate fund capital raising activities of the group. After a period of three months in this role, Leger will be leaving the company and Omni Bridgeway will look to hire a permanent senior capital formation professional as a replacement.A separate announcement from Latitude Group Holdings confirms that Guillaume Leger will become the company’s new Chief Financial Officer on 16 June 2025.