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Georgia Senate Unanimously Approves Governor’s Litigation Funding Bill

By Harry Moran |
March 3, 2025

Georgia Senate Unanimously Approves Governor’s Litigation Funding Bill

As LFJ reported last week, momentum continues to build behind state-level legislative proposals that seek to impose new rules governing the use of third-party litigation funding in the U.S. 

Reporting by the AP covers a new development in the Georgia state legislature, where the Senate has unanimously passed the second part of Gov. Brian Kemp’s legislative package aimed at tort reform and third-party litigation funding. Senate Bill 69, which passed the Senate last Thursday with 52 Yea votes, amends state law to include new provisions governing the involvement of litigation funders.

SB 69 requires third-party funders register with Georgia’s Department of Banking and Finance, as well as prohibiting any foreign individuals or organisation from funding litigation in the state. The bill also sets out disclosure requirements for cases where a litigation funding agreement is present and puts in place restrictions on a funder’s ability to control the litigation process.

Senate President Pro Tem John Kennedy, a sponsor of the bill, said that SB 69  “combats the growing foreign influence” in Georgia lawsuits, and argued that the new rules contained within the bill act as a “consumer protection measure”. The Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, which opposes these attempts at reform, stated that there is “still work to be done to ensure SB 69 fairly addresses its intended purpose”. 

SB 69 will now join SB 68, the part of Gov. Kemp’s package that primarily deals with tort reform, to be debated in the House and scrutinised by a bi-partisan subcommittee convened by House Rules Committee Chairman Butch Parrish. 

The full text and status of Senate Bill 69 can be accessed on the Georgia General Assembly website.

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Harry Moran

Harry Moran

Commercial

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Commercial

Burford-Backed Kindleworth Opens New York Office With Two Senior Hires

Kindleworth, the UK legal consultancy backed by litigation funder Burford Capital, has opened an office in New York and appointed two senior figures to lead its expansion into the United States market.

As reported by Non-Billable, the firm has hired Maryana Kodner as Partner and Head of US Operations. Kodner is a former Clifford Chance litigator who has spent more than 20 years in senior operational roles at boutique New York law firms. Joining her as Strategic Advisor is Anand David, who previously oversaw the recruitment and integration of more than 300 partners and partner-led teams at Hogan Lovells, White & Case and Morrison Foerster.

Kindleworth provides infrastructure and support to lawyer-led firm launches, covering financing, strategy, recruitment, technology and operations. The business now has 60 professionals and has supported the launch of more than 50 law firms and offices globally, including the US launches of Three Crowns in Washington, DC and Pallas Partners in New York.

Burford Capital took a strategic minority investment in Kindleworth in 2025, backing the consultancy's international expansion. The New York opening marks the first substantial deployment of that capital in the US market.

Chief executive James Hacking said the firm has had "a front-row seat to one of the most significant shifts in the legal industry, as leading partners choose to build focused, entrepreneurial firms rather than remain within traditional structures."

The move reflects a broader pattern of litigation funders extending their capital beyond individual case investments and into the infrastructure of the legal services market itself.

Commercial

UK Tribunal Refuses Amazon Bid to Move Largest Sellers Into Opt-In Class, Citing Funding Terms

The Competition Appeal Tribunal has rejected Amazon's attempt to carve roughly 1,000 of its largest marketplace sellers out of an opt-out collective action and require them to opt in, leaving the full merchant class to proceed on an opt-out basis.

As reported by Law News, Amazon applied under rule 85(1) of the CAT Rules 2015 to vary the collective proceedings order so that merchants with more than £10 million in Gross Merchandise Sales would be excluded from the opt-out class. Although those merchants represent only about 1,000 of approximately 214,000 class members, they account for just over 40% of total marketplace sales. The Tribunal declined to create the resulting hybrid opt-out and opt-in structure in its judgment, cited as [2026] CAT 84.

Funding arrangements featured directly in the Tribunal's reasoning. The judgment noted that the litigation funding agreement and the after-the-event insurance policy backing the claim covered only opt-out proceedings, a point that bore on the practicality of Amazon's proposed restructuring.

The claim is brought by class representative Professor Andreas Stephan and is valued at approximately £2.7 billion. The collective proceedings order was made in November 2025. Kieron Beal KC and Christopher Monaghan of Geradin Partners act for the class representative, while Daniel Piccinin KC and Kristina Lukacova of Covington & Burling LLP act for Amazon.

The first trial is scheduled to begin on 25 April 2028 and run for approximately eight weeks, addressing market definition, dominance and abuse. A second trial will deal with causation, quantum and pass-on.

Commercial

Litigation Capital Management Writes Off £5.0m Investment After Appeal Permission Refused

Litigation Capital Management has confirmed that the funded party in one of its commercial litigation investments has been refused permission to appeal, bringing the matter to a close and forcing the funder to write off the full carrying value of the position.

As reported by Investegate, the company disclosed in a regulatory announcement on 9 November 2026 that the investment had been carried at £5.0 million (A$9.5 million) as at 30 June 2026. With the appeal route now exhausted, that value will be written off in full, crystallising an impairment that reduces the funder's assets and is expected to weigh on both profit and net asset value.

The disclosure follows a difficult period for the Australian-headquartered funder. In July 2026, LCM reported that permission to appeal had been refused in a separate competition claim, resulting in a smaller write-off of £0.8 million (A$1.5 million). The company's full-year results for FY26 recorded a net realised loss of A$63.9 million, reversing a A$22.2 million gain in the prior year, alongside a negative fair value movement of A$54.1 million.

LCM has also been operating under financial constraints tied to its borrowing arrangements, having secured an extension of a covenant waiver from lender Northleaf Capital Partners to 13 November 2026. The funder announced a strategic review in July 2026 and is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting in Sydney on 30 November 2026.

The announcement illustrates the binary nature of litigation finance returns, where an adverse judgment and a subsequent refusal of appeal permission can eliminate an entire position's carrying value in a single step.