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Community Spotlight: Garrett Ordower, Partner, Scale LLP

By John Freund |
April 3, 2025

Community Spotlight: Garrett Ordower, Partner, Scale LLP

Garrett is a seasoned attorney and head of Scale LLP’s Litigation Finance Team. With extensive experience across both commercial and consumer litigation finance sectors, Garrett brings a uniquely comprehensive perspective to the field. He has developed specialized expertise in sourcing, evaluating, structuring, and managing diverse funding arrangements, from single-case investments to complex law firm portfolio facilities. Throughout his career, Garrett has successfully navigated intricate and often contentious workouts involving various stakeholders, including claimholders, attorneys, funders, and medical providers.

Beyond traditional litigation finance, Garrett has emerged as a thought leader in legal innovation. He advises on sophisticated structuring and ethics issues for startups in litigation finance, LegalTech, JusticeTech, and advises on a broad range of ethics issues including emerging issues relating to the use of artificial intelligence to deliver legal services to both consumers and businesses. His expertise extends to alternative business structures and two-company models that enable innovative legal service delivery while maintaining ethical compliance. Garrett is licensed to practice in New York, Illinois, and Arizona.

Garrett began his career as a litigator at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, engaging in significant litigation and white collar matters. He then transitioned to one of the pioneering commercial litigation funders, Lake Whillans Litigation Finance, as a managing director. At Lake Whillans, Garrett participated in tens of millions in litigation finance deals including asset purchases, law firm lending portfolios, and claimholder funding. His articles on litigation finance topics have been widely published, and he was recognized as one of Lawdragon’s Global 100 Leaders in Litigation Finance.

Garrett then joined Mighty Group, Inc., as its General Counsel following the company’s Series B raise. He handled all legal aspects of Mighty’s significant consumer litigation finance portfolio, which included investments in medical receivables, pre-settlement advances, and law firm lending. Garrett also played a pivotal role in helping Mighty create an innovative tech-forward competitor to existing personal injury law firms.

Since joining Scale, Garrett has focused his practice on helping innovative companies in the legal and litigation finance spaces. As head of the Litigation Finance Team, Garrett has helped litigation finance companies with fund structures, commercial and consumer transactions, and ethics and regulatory advice. Garrett has also advised a wide variety of LegalTech and JusticeTech companies on structuring their businesses in order to achieve their goals in an ethical and compliant manner, including doing so through the use of AI.

Prior to practicing, Garrett graduated from the University of Chicago Law School where he was Editor-in-Chief of the University of Chicago Law Review, and clerked on the Northern District of Illinois and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. Garrett maintains an active pro bono practice and recently secured the vacatur of his client’s manslaughter conviction. Prior to law school, Garrett worked as a newspaper reporter and investigative journalist.

Company Name and Description: Scale LLP, a full-service, national law firm that rethinks the traditional law firm model. Scale provides a tech-forward, distributed platform that reduces overhead and increases efficiency to offer the best legal talent at a competitive price-point.

Company Website: scalefirm.com

Year Founded: 2017

Headquarters: San Francisco, CA

Area of Focus: Scale LLP’s Litigation Finance Team delivers comprehensive solutions across the entire litigation funding ecosystem. We provide specialized counsel to litigation finance companies, claimholders, law firms, and investors, drawing on our team’s firsthand experience having worked on all sides of litigation finance transactions. Our services encompass fund formation, deal structuring, portfolio construction, regulatory compliance, and workout solutions and litigation related to distressed assets.

Our practice uniquely bridges both commercial and consumer litigation finance sectors, allowing us to develop innovative hybrid approaches that maximize return while managing risk appropriately. We combine deep litigation experience with sophisticated financial structuring capabilities to deliver practical advice on complex transactions ranging from single-case investments to multi-jurisdictional portfolio facilities.

Beyond traditional litigation finance, we lead the field in advising LegalTech and JusticeTech companies on cutting-edge business models that navigate regulatory complexity while promoting greater access to justice. We provide guidance on artificial intelligence implementation in legal services, addressing both the transformative potential and ethical challenges presented by these technologies. Our attorneys have pioneered compliant structures for alternative business arrangements in both traditional and emerging jurisdictions, helping clients develop sustainable competitive advantages through regulatory innovation.

Member Quote: “I work at the intersection of law, finance, and technology because I believe these convergent forces can transform our legal system. By leveraging litigation finance, legal innovation, and AI tools thoughtfully, we can build a more equitable legal landscape where outcomes are determined by merits rather than resources. Every day, I work with visionaries who are dismantling outdated structures and creating something more efficient, accessible, and just. This evolution not only enhances access to justice but also creates compelling investment opportunities in a market ripe for transformation.”

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John Freund

John Freund

Commercial

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Commercial

Westfleet Insider 2025: Commercial Litigation Finance Rebounds as Capital Constraints Persist

By John Freund |

The U.S. commercial litigation finance market posted a notable recovery in 2025, with new capital commitments climbing approximately 23% year-over-year to $2.8 billion across 346 new deals, according to the seventh annual Westfleet Insider report.

As reported by Westfleet Advisors, the rebound follows two consecutive years of contraction — commitments had slipped from $2.7 billion in 2023 to $2.3 billion in 2024 — and signals renewed deployment activity after a period of broad market retrenchment.

Despite the headline recovery, the data paints a nuanced picture. The uptick was driven by incremental deployment among a small cohort of established funders rather than any broad-based expansion of available capital. Of the 39 funders identified as active in the U.S. commercial market, a notable subset deployed little to no new capital during the reporting period, and only one new entrant emerged. Several funders are actively winding down operations, pointing to a quiet but ongoing consolidation across the industry.

Deal economics remained largely stable. The average transaction size held steady at approximately $8.1 million overall, though the composition shifted meaningfully: single-matter deals contracted to $4.5 million from $6.6 million the prior year, while portfolio transactions expanded to $19.6 million from $16.5 million. Portfolio structures continued to dominate, representing 64% of new commitments.

One of the more significant structural shifts in 2025 was the decline in Big Law utilization, with the share of total commitments directed to the 200 largest U.S. firms dropping to 24% from 37% in 2024. Client-directed deals edged ahead of firm-directed arrangements for the first time in recent years, representing 52% of commitments.

Other notable findings include patent litigation accounting for 27% of funded matters, contingent risk insurance coverage ticking up to 21% of deals, and claim monetization declining to 17% of new commitments from 26% in 2024.

Commercial

Gen Re Calls for EU-Wide Third-Party Litigation Funding Regulation

By John Freund |

The reinsurance industry is adding its voice to growing calls for a unified regulatory framework for third-party litigation funding across Europe.

As reported by Gen Re, the European litigation funding market now includes more than 300 funders operating with limited transparency and fragmented oversight across EU member states. The publication highlights a significant regulatory gap, with most countries allowing TPLF under general contract law while lacking specific rules around disclosure, conflicts of interest, or funder control over litigation strategy.

The Netherlands and Germany lead Europe as the most developed markets, while Ireland still prohibits outside litigation funding under common law. France, Spain, and Portugal have introduced or are considering consumer-focused legislation, but no harmonized EU-wide framework exists.

Insurance Europe and the Reinsurance Advisory Board have both called for regulation at the EU level, arguing it is necessary to maintain trust in the justice and financial systems. Their primary concerns include a lack of transparency about funding arrangements, potential conflicts of interest, rising litigation costs, and insufficient investor oversight.

Proponents of the industry counter that professional funders improve access to justice for under-resourced claimants and help filter out weak claims through rigorous due diligence. A cross-sector group of business associations issued a joint statement in January 2026 renewing their call for proportionate, harmonized EU-level rules.

Commercial

The Next Battleground in Consumer Legal Funding: Discovery and Transparency

By John Freund |

A growing legal debate is taking shape over whether consumer legal funding agreements should be subject to discovery during litigation, with significant implications for plaintiffs and the funding industry alike.

As reported by the National Law Review, Eric Schuller of the Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding argues that mandatory disclosure requirements create strategic advantages for defendants by exposing plaintiffs' financial vulnerabilities and sensitive underwriting information.

Defendants and insurers have increasingly pushed for access to funding agreements, framing their requests as transparency measures. Proponents say disclosure could reveal whether funders are influencing litigation strategy and promote accountability in the civil justice system.

Critics counter that forcing plaintiffs to produce funding contracts may discourage injured individuals from seeking legitimate financial assistance during lengthy cases. Consumer legal funding arrangements are non-recourse, meaning plaintiffs repay only if their case results in a successful settlement or verdict.

Several states have proposed or enacted laws requiring varying degrees of disclosure — from simple notification that funding exists to full production of contract terms. The debate reflects broader tensions between transparency and consumer protection that continue to shape litigation funding regulation across the country.