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JurisTrade Litigation Asset Marketplace Launches Phase 1 Rollout with over $70 Million in Litigation Funding Opportunities

By Harry Moran |
March 19, 2025

JurisTrade Litigation Asset Marketplace Launches Phase 1 Rollout with over $70 Million in Litigation Funding Opportunities

The JurisTrade Platform soft-launched last week with over $70 million in litigation funding opportunities in single cases, funding mass tort dockets and law firm refinancing.

The JurisTrade Litigation Asset Marketplace (“JurisTrade’) provides a transparent electronic platform which facilitates both primary funding opportunities in litigation finance, as well secondary sales of such interests.

The potential market for litigation finance ranges in the several $100s billions, of which only $30 billion is currently funded. JurisTrade is designed to unlock this large unmet demand through its liquid and transparent marketplace.

The litigation finance ecosystem has been clamoring for years for this type of market solution. Similarly to many other major asset classes, JurisTrade was built on a foundation of industry standardization, transparency and process streamlining, which eliminates uncertainty and, thus, attracts liquidity for litigation finance, a bona fide uncorrelated asset class.

Clients of JurisTrade include institutions, law firms, litigation finance funds, and family offices.

JurisTrade’s Phase I rollout includes nine diverse investment opportunities including a high-profile single case, a judgment monetization case, a law firm debt refinancing case, and several mass action-related cases. An OTC service desk is being offered to assist our clients in negotiating terms and structuring all manners of trades and vehicles, among other things. Other market features, technology, and analytics will be offered soon.

Typhon Capital Management, Larry Hite, and two notable family offices are sponsors of JurisTrade, and JurisTrade will be leveraging their collective expertise and experience. Typhon, in particular, provides trading operations on JurisTrade. Clients can use JurisTrade to directly engage in claims trading, such as bankruptcy and mass tort, then leverage Typhon to invest in or create custom passive funds holding any manner of litigation interests or loans, and actively managed funds, such as thematic claim trading, market making, or activist litigations. Typhon can also structure insurance wrappers around litigation-focused investments.

The senior management team of JurisTrade includes James Koutoulas as CEO, Kevin J.P. O’Hara as Chairman, Shawn Hartpence as Chief Commercial Officer, and Andrew Barroway and Larry Hite as strategic limited partners.

“Mr. Koutoulas is a seasoned hedge fund manager and attorney with a unique skillset encompassing derivatives-trading, complex bankruptcy and class action litigation, and software development making him the perfect CEO to bring the emerging asset class of litigation assets to a wider audience. He and I share similar philosophies on structuring vehicles with asymmetric, positively-skewed, and uncorrelated return profiles which will be much appreciated in the litigation investing world,” said Larry Hite, Founder of Hite Capital.

“Similarly, Mr. O’Hara’s previous C-suite roles at NYSE, CBOT, Archipelago and Gulf Finance House, and as an attorney at the SEC and his financial markets development in Eastern Europe, provide JurisTrade with one of the most accomplished exchange experts to steer our growth.”

“Larry Hite is a pioneer of two assets classes – commodity trading and litigation assets. Larry is an original ‘Market Wizard’ and we are humbled to have him as a founding partner and advisor to JurisTrade,” said James Koutoulas, CEO of JurisTrade.

Please sign up to view our initial inventory and be kept up to date at www.juristrade.com.

About Larry Hite:

Larry Hite is a legendary commodities trader and one of the founders of systematic trading. Mr. Hite founded Mint Capital, which was the largest CTA in the world by AUM in 1990. He has since been an active investor in litigation assets where he has invested in thousands of cases.

About Typhon Capital Management:

Typhon Capital Management, led by CEO James Koutoulas, is a multi-strategy hedge fund and platform specializing in tactical futures, quantitative, and cryptocurrency trading. Typhon creates custom portfolios and structured products for institutional investors and wealth management firms and is headquartered in Miami Beach. Mr. Koutoulas also was lead customer counsel in the MF Global bankruptcy, leading the recovery of all $6.7 billion in customer assets.

About Kevin J.P. O’Hara:

Kevin J. P. O’Hara has a decades-long career in business, law and regulation, entrepreneurship, technology, international, investing, and post-graduate teaching. Mr. O’Hara is an active angel investor with several successful exits, including sales to LinkedIn, PayPal, and IQVIA. He has a plethora of private and public company board and governance experience.

He was previously: (1) a C-suite member at CBOT, NYSE, Archipelago, and Gulf Finance House (Bahrain); (2) an attorney at the SEC, DOJ, and a major Chicago law firm (products liability and mass tort defense)(3) a law and business school lecturer at Northwestern University and Loyola University; and (4) an in-county financial and economic advisor in Eastern Europe in 1990s.

About Shawn Hartpence:

Shawn Hartpence has over a decade of experience advising law firms, litigation fund managers and institutional investors on capital formation and litigation investment. Areas of expertise include mass tort portfolio funding, secondary mass tort portfolio trading, single-case funding, portfolio funding, single-case monetization, and capital introduction for niche litigation strategies. Mr. Hartpence is a partner at Ocasio Mass Tort Law, a DC Law Firm and a Board Member of a cutting-edge AI Litigation assessment company.

About Andrew Barroway:

Andrew Barroway is a distinguished litigator and hedge fund manager with a proven track record of success in the investment world. He previously built Barroway, Topaz, Kessler, Meltzer, & Check, LLP, the second largest securities class action firm in the country, and helped lead the $3.2 billion settlement of Tyco Ltd. International. At Merion Investment Management, Mr. Barroway invented the appraisal rights arbitrage trade where he managed $1.2B in the near-riskless strategy, annualizing 13.25% net for 12 years. Mr. Barroway is a strategic limited partner in JurisTrade and the senior portfolio manager of our upcoming Cerus Litigation Fund.

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Harry Moran

Harry Moran

Commercial

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Commercial People Moves

Red Lion Chambers Hires Former Harbour Director for Client Role

By John Freund |

Red Lion Chambers has taken a notable step in strengthening its engagement with litigation funders and commercial clients by appointing a former senior figure from the funding industry into a newly created client-facing role. The move reflects the increasingly close relationship between the UK Bar and third-party litigation finance, particularly in complex commercial and group actions where funding strategy and legal execution are closely intertwined.

An article in Global Legal Post reports that Red Lion Chambers has appointed James Hartley, formerly a director at Harbour Litigation Funding, as its first director of client relationships. In this newly established position, Hartley will be responsible for developing relationships with solicitors, funders, and other clients, as well as helping to align the chambers’ barristers with funded opportunities across commercial litigation, arbitration, and competition claims.

Hartley brings several years of experience from the funding side of the market, having worked at Harbour Litigation Funding where he was involved in evaluating claims, structuring funding arrangements, and working closely with law firms and counsel on strategy. His move to Red Lion Chambers underscores the value chambers are placing on individuals who understand both the legal and financial dynamics of funded disputes, as well as the commercial drivers behind claim selection and case management.

According to the report, Red Lion Chambers sees the appointment as part of a broader effort to modernise how barristers’ chambers engage with the market, particularly as clients and funders increasingly expect a more coordinated and commercially aware approach from counsel. The role is intended to complement, rather than replace, the traditional clerking function, with a specific focus on strategic relationships and long-term growth areas.

Case Developments Commercial

Longford Capital and Susman Godfrey Sued Over $32m Arbitration Award

By John Freund |

A new lawsuit has placed litigation funder Longford Capital Corp and prominent US trial firm Susman Godfrey LLP at the center of a high-stakes dispute over the ownership and allocation of arbitration proceeds, highlighting the growing complexity and occasional friction in funded litigation arrangements. The case stems from a roughly $32 million arbitration award tied to patent litigation recoveries and raises questions about the enforceability of funding agreements, arbitration clauses, and the definition of recoverable proceeds.

An article in Reuters reports that the lawsuit was filed in Texas state court by Arigna, an Ireland-based patent monetization company that previously worked with Susman Godfrey to pursue semiconductor-related patent claims. Arigna alleges that it was improperly forced into arbitration and that the resulting award in favor of Longford was tainted by arbitrator misconduct. According to the complaint, Arigna is seeking to have the arbitration award vacated and to recover approximately $5.5 million in settlement funds currently held in escrow.

The dispute traces back to a funding arrangement entered into after Arigna retained Susman Godfrey to pursue patent enforcement actions. Susman subsequently secured third-party litigation financing from Longford Capital. Tensions emerged over how Longford’s entitlement to proceeds should be calculated, particularly in relation to settlements involving multiple defendants and intellectual property assets that Arigna claims were outside the scope of the original funding deal. An earlier federal court battle over whether the dispute belonged in court or arbitration ultimately resulted in the matter being sent to arbitration, where the arbitrator ruled in Longford’s favor.

Now, Arigna argues that the arbitration should never have occurred and that Longford and Susman overreached in asserting rights to settlement proceeds. Longford has defended the award as valid and enforceable, while Susman Godfrey is also named as a defendant due to its role in structuring and executing the underlying legal and funding arrangements.

Case Developments Commercial

LitFin Backs €250m Antitrust Claims for Farmers

By John Freund |

LitFin, the Prague-headquartered litigation financier, has reached a major procedural milestone in one of Europe’s largest coordinated private antitrust actions, backing claims on behalf of more than 1,700 agricultural businesses harmed by a long-running pesticide cartel in Germany. In December 2025, damages claims approaching €250 million, including interest, were formally filed against wholesale distributors of plant protection products found to have engaged in unlawful price-fixing over nearly two decades.

LitFin reports that the claims are grounded in binding findings by Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, which determined that cartel conduct spanned from 1998 to 2015 and covered almost the entire market for plant protection products. That infringement resulted in administrative fines totaling approximately €157 million. Under German and EU competition law, such findings create a strong presumption that purchasers paid unlawful price surcharges during both the cartel period and its after-effects—forming the economic basis of the damages now being pursued by affected farmers.

The lawsuit has been filed by WAGNER LEGAL Rechtsanwälte PartG mbB, a Hamburg-based firm specializing in antitrust damages litigation, working in close coordination with the funder. According to LitFin, the claims are supported by a comprehensive economic analysis prepared by competition experts at Charles River Associates, quantifying the alleged overcharges suffered by claimants across the German agricultural sector.

For the agricultural businesses involved, the filing represents more than just a legal step forward. Without third-party funding, coordinating and prosecuting claims of this scale against well-resourced defendants would likely have been impractical. LitFin’s involvement enabled aggregation of claims, risk-sharing, and the deployment of specialist legal and economic expertise across a complex, multi-claimant proceeding.