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Community Spotlights

Community Spotlight: Jonas Rey, Partner, Athena Intelligence SA & Founder, Liti Capital SA

By John Freund |

Athena Intelligence is the largest corporate intelligence firm in Switzerland, specializing in dispute resolution, litigation support and asset recovery. Liti Capital is a Swiss based litigation funders that made headlines in 2021 for tokenizing its equity and raising funds through cryptocurrency markets. The company has since invested in multiple global cases.

Company Website: https://athenaintelligence.ch/ – https://liticapital.com/

Year Founded: 2019 / 2021

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

Area of Focus: Asset recovery, blockchain, unorthodox cases

Member Quote: If there is a way to extract returns from this, we will find it.

About the author

John Freund

John Freund

Commercial

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Announcements Commercial People Moves

Exton Advisors Appoints Senior Finance Professional Timothy Mayer

By Harry Moran |

Leading global advisors in disputes finance, Exton Advisors, today announces the appointment of experienced funder and lawyer Timothy Mayer to its team, marking the start of an exciting year for the firm.

Called to the Bar in 1997, Timothy has over sixteen years’ experience in the disputes funding market, having spent time at some of the leading global dispute’s funders. He has managed multi-million investments across a broad range of disputes, with particular focus on international arbitration, and has been consistently recognised in the directories, including as a Global Leader in Legal Finance in the Law Dragon Global 100 guide (2020 – 2023) and Chambers and Partners Litigation Support Guide for Litigation Funding (2020 -2024).

Commenting on the appointment, Managing Director John Astill said, “We are delighted to welcome Timothy, and to grow our team in 2025. Timothy brings with him a unique combination of practical legal experience and disputes finance expertise that will be invaluable to our clients and will further strengthen the seamless and efficient approach to disputes finance that Exton Advisors offers.”

Timothy commented, “I am thrilled to join Exton Advisors at an exciting time for the business, and I look forward to the opportunity to be part of a truly unique service spanning the legal and funding spheres. No other disputes funding advisory exists quite like Exton Advisors, and I am keen to continue developing their distinctive approach to disputes financing.”

Exton Advisors deliver expertise in every aspect of the unique and complex disputes financing asset class. They advise corporate legal teams, their private practitioners and their funding partners in order to make the most of litigation assets.

About Exton Advisors

Exton Advisors deliver expertise in every aspect of the unique and complex litigation financing asset class. They advise corporate legal teams, their private practitioners and their funding partners in order to make the most of litigation assets.

Case Developments Commercial

Omni Bridgeway Backs Australian Class Action Targeting Johnson & Johnson

By Harry Moran |

A class action was recently filed in the Federal Court of Australia, targeting Johnson & Johnson over allegations that a number of its oral cold and flu medications are ineffective when taken orally. The claim covers 20 separate products sold by Johnson & Johnson across three brands of medication: Codral, Sudafed, and Benadryl.

An article in Lawyers Weekly covers the class action being brought by JGA Saddler, with funding for the case provided by Omni Bridgeway. The pharmaceutical giant is accused of falsely marketing and selling these products as effective treatments, with the claim seeking to represent any Australian customer who has bought one of these products since 2005.

Rebecca Jancauskas, director at JGA Saddler, stated that “Johnson & Johnson has manufactured and marketed a medication that decades of evidence have shown doesn’t work as claimed.” She also emphasised the importance of the claim in seeking compensation by saying, “customers should be able to confidently buy medicines that work as advertised and when they don’t, the company involved should be held accountable.”

Niall Watson-Dunne, investment manager at Omni Bridgeway, said that “for around 19 years, Australians have been sold cold and flu products to relieve their symptoms, despite studies and scientific evidence showing their key ingredient phenylephrine is ineffective when taken orally.”

More information about the class action can be found on Omni Bridgeway’s website.

Commercial Deals

Qanlex Refines its Latin America Strategy

By Harry Moran |

Qanlex is one of the few litigation funders focused on providing third-party financing in Latin America, with a dedicated presence in the region. The funder leverages a sector-specific strategy for targeting lucrative case types.

Speaking with América Economía, Qanlex’s general counsel for Latin America, Juliana Giorgi, emphasised that in order to gain a foothold in the competitive litigation funding market, the firm has leveraged “the development of technology.” Giorgi goes on to explain that its in-house software “searches for cases in judicial databases that might interest us due to the value of the claim or the nature of the process”, allowing Qanlex to find suitable claims to finance in the different countries it operates in.

Beyond the use of technology to refine its strategies, Qanlex has also chosen to focus on specific sectors that generate valuable disputes in Latin America. Whilst the construction sector has been a particular area of interest, Qanlex has also found opportunities for niche areas within different jurisdictions. As Giorgi explains: “In Ecuador we have several energy cases that include thermoelectric plants; in Costa Rica, cases of tourist real estate development; in Colombia, oil and energy cases."

Regardless of the sector, Gorgi acknowledges that Qanlex is “open to analyzing and financing any range of cases as long as they include a liquid asset transfer at the end of which the fund can take the remuneration.”