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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

The New Realities of Funded Patent Litigation

By John Freund |

Third-party litigation funding has become a durable and sophisticated feature of U.S. patent disputes, fundamentally reshaping how cases are filed, litigated, and settled.

As reported by Financier Worldwide, R. David Donoghue of Holland & Knight examines how the growing presence of litigation funders in patent cases is altering the strategic landscape for both plaintiffs and defendants. The article notes a sustained, multi-year trend toward larger capital pools, more sophisticated funders, and broader reliance on portfolio-based enforcement structures, particularly in high-filing districts like Delaware and Eastern and Western Texas.

Funded plaintiffs, Donoghue writes, tend to bring more carefully vetted cases. Funders conduct rigorous pre-filing due diligence that often exceeds Rule 11 standards, meaning defendants are less likely to encounter speculative claims and more likely to face adversaries with defensible damages models and clear recovery paths. Non-recourse capital also gives funded plaintiffs extended staying power, enabling multitrack strategies that reduce the effectiveness of traditional cost-based litigation leverage.

Courts are responding with increased scrutiny. Judges are more frequently requiring disclosure of funder identities, financial interests, and control rights. Discovery into funding arrangements may be permitted when relevant to questions of bias, standing, or valuation.

For defense teams, Donoghue recommends early identification of claim weaknesses, targeted disclosure motions, rigorous damages discipline, and data-driven settlement proposals calibrated to litigation milestones rather than nuisance value. The article underscores that while funding does not necessarily increase frivolous filings, it does extend the duration and intensity of patent disputes.

Commercial

Burford Capital Director Makes the Case for Legal Finance as Strategic Capital Tool

By John Freund |

A veteran litigator turned legal finance professional is challenging what she calls the biggest misconception about the industry: that litigation funding is only for companies that cannot afford their legal bills.

As reported by Burford Capital, Director Stephanie Southwick — who spent more than 15 years as a first-chair commercial and intellectual property litigator before joining the firm seven years ago — argues that the real question for potential clients is not whether they can pay, but whether litigation spending represents the best use of capital. Even financially strong organizations, she says, benefit from preserving operational funds and converting legal expenses into monetizable assets.

Southwick emphasizes that trust and alignment between funder and client are essential for a successful funding arrangement, describing the ideal relationship as a strategic partnership rather than a purely transactional one. She also highlights the value of legal finance for startups, noting that it provides non-dilutive capital that allows founders to pursue meritorious claims without reducing runway or diluting equity.

For companies considering litigation financing, Southwick advises disciplined damages analysis and realistic budgeting from the outset. Early involvement of financing partners, she says, helps calibrate the structure and economics of an arrangement before litigation costs begin to accumulate.

Commercial Regulatory Issues

Louisiana Partners with NICB to Target Litigation Funding Digital Ads

By John Freund |

Louisiana's insurance regulator is taking aim at third-party litigation funding marketing campaigns it says mislead consumers through deceptive digital advertising tactics.

As reported by Beinsure Media, the Louisiana Department of Insurance has partnered with the National Insurance Crime Bureau and 4WARN, a digital intelligence firm, to identify and combat TPLF-related paid search advertising that intercepts policyholders seeking claims assistance. Regulators allege that some campaigns create confusion about whether communications originate from insurers themselves.

The partnership follows a joint NICB and 4WARN report finding that TPLF organizations spent approximately $380 million on paid online search advertising between June 2024 and June 2025. According to regulators, some third-party marketers steer claimants toward litigation before they have an opportunity to contact their insurers directly, extending dispute timelines and increasing costs within the claims ecosystem.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance is advising policyholders to use verified sources, including the department's official website and mobile app, and to verify search result links before clicking.

The initiative marks the first coordinated regulatory effort specifically targeting TPLF digital marketing tactics, signaling a potential new front in the ongoing debate over litigation funding regulation at the state level.