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Key Takeaways from IMN’s 5th Annual Financing, Structuring and Investing in Litigation Finance

June 8, 2023

Key Takeaways from IMN’s 5th Annual Financing, Structuring and Investing in Litigation Finance

On Wednesday, June 7th, IMN hosted its 5th annual Financing, Structuring and Investing in Litigation Finance conference. LFJ attended the event and covered various panel discussions on topics ranging from key trends and developments, ESG initiatives and insurance products. Below are some key takeaways from the event. The first panel of the day focused on broader trends and developments impacting the Litigation Finance industry. The panel consisted of Douglas Gruener, Partner at Levenfeld Pearlstein, Reid Zeising, CEO and Founder of Gain (formerly Cherokee Funding & Gain Servicing), William Weisman, Director of Commercial Litigation at Parabellum Capital, Charles Schmerler, Senior Managing Director and Head of Litigation Finance at Pretium Partners, and David Gallagher, Co-Head of Litigation Investing at the D.E. Shaw Group. The panel was moderated by Andrew Langhoff, Founder and Principal of Red Bridges Advisors. One of the most interesting back-and-forths came on the issue of secondaries, as Doug Gruener noted that ‘There were a large number of investments made five to seven years ago, so the opportunity is ripe both on the demand side and supply side.” Andrew Langhoff, the moderator, responded that there are major hurdles involved in facilitating a secondaries market, such as questions around pricing, execution and management of the claims, to which other panelists agreed. However, Charles Schmerler pointed out that this industry is like any other capital markets industry, and to the extend that a secondaries market can provide liquidity and be a useful resource, he would be surprised if five years from now we’re not all reminiscing about how we once questioned the efficacy of a secondaries market in Litigation Finance. Perhaps the most timely panel of the day was on insurance, and its impact on the Litigation Finance market. The panel consisted of Brandon Deme, Co-Founder and Director at Factor Risk Management, Sarah Lieber, Managing Director and Co-Head of the Litigation Finance Group at Stifel, Megan Easley, Vice President of Contingent Risk Solutions at CAC Specialty, and Jason Bertoldi, Head of Contingent Risk Solutions at Willis Tower Watson. The panel was moderated by Stephen Davidson, Managing Director and Head of Litigation and Contingent Risk at Aon. Brandon Deme pointed to the rapid growth of the industry: “The insurance market is expanding. We’ve got insurers that can go up to $25MM in one single investment. When you put that together with the six to seven insurers who are active in the space, you can insure over $100MM. And that wasn’t possible just a few years ago.” One interesting point of discussion was on how to engender more cooperation between insurers and litigation funders, given that the two parties are at odds on issues relating to disclosure and regulatory requirements. Jason Bertoldi of Willis Tower Watson noted that almost every carrier who offers this product will have some sort of interaction with funders, either directly or indirectly. And while there is opposition to litigation funding from insurers around frivolous litigation and ethical concerns, there are similarly concerns amongst insurers around adverse selection and information asymmetry. So the insurance industry has to get more comfortable with litigation finance, and vice versa. The panel on ESG consisted of Viren Mascarenhas, Partner at Milbank, Nikos Asimakopoulos, Director of Disputes at Alaco, and Rebecca Berrebi, Founder and CEO of Avenue 33, LLC. The panel was moderated by Collin Cox, Partner at Gibson Dunn. This discussion touched on the opportunities afforded to funders by ESG efforts, as well as the challenges this emerging sector presents, such as diligence problems and confusion around how multinational ESG initiatives might impact state and local laws. Examples were provided around whistleblower claims, international arbitration efforts, supply chain issues in foreign jurisdictions. Other panels included discussions on the economics of the Litigation Finance market, strategies for mass torts investments, regulatory issues, and a small group meeting on women in Litigation Finance. Overall, IMN’s 5th annual Litigation Finance event highlights the growth and maturation of a nascent industry, and the range of interested parties in attendance (from funders to law firms to insurance providers to asset allocators) underscores the sector’s long-term sustainability.

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Trucking Industry Backs Federal Liability Bill Amid Litigation Funding Concerns

A bicameral bill introduced in Congress would bar liability claims premised on vehicle safety standards stricter than those set by federal regulators, and has drawn support from a trucking and insurance coalition that counts third-party litigation funding among the pressures driving up its costs.

As reported by Transport Topics, the Uniform Vehicle Safety Standards Act was introduced on August 6 by Rep. Mike Flood of Nebraska, joined by Reps. David Rouzer, Jay Obernolte and Jake Ellzey, with a Senate companion from Sens. Deb Fischer and Cynthia Lummis. The measure would amend Title 49 of the U.S. Code to prohibit common law claims alleging that a vehicle should have met standards exceeding those established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"In recent years, we've seen a sharp rise in lawsuits awarding damages based on state standards instead of the federal safety standards trucking companies are already required to meet," Flood said. Alex Rosen of the American Trucking Associations argued that where NHTSA has determined a standard strikes the right balance, "that expert determination should carry greater weight than hindsight judgments."

The bill itself contains no litigation funding provisions. Funding enters through the coalition assembled behind it, which includes the American Property Casualty Insurance Association and the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies alongside nine trucking organizations and Werner Enterprises. Research from the American Transportation Research Institute cited in the piece identifies third-party litigation funding and staged accidents as evolving legal threats to carriers, and links excessive litigation to insurance premiums that have climbed 36% over eight years.

For funders, the significance is positional rather than legal. The trucking sector has become one of the more organized constituencies pressing for disclosure and restriction at the state level, and preemption bills of this kind widen the front without naming the industry directly.

Commercial

Conservative Columnist Argues Litigation Funding Limits Would Disarm the Right

A guest column published this week makes a right-of-center case against pending federal restrictions on third-party litigation funding, arguing that the measures would strip conservative activists and small business owners of the capital they need to litigate against better-resourced opponents.

Writing in The State Journal, Drew Johnson takes aim at the Protecting Our Courts From Foreign Manipulation Act, led by Rep. Ben Cline of Virginia, and at Senator Thom Tillis's proposal to impose a punitive tax on litigation funding proceeds. Johnson is a senior fellow at the National Center for Public Policy Research and the 2026 Republican nominee for Nevada State Treasurer.

His central argument is that the bill's stated purpose, preventing foreign governments from bankrolling harassment suits, is already served by existing mechanisms including CFIUS review and judicial discretion, leaving the new disclosure requirements to do work their sponsors did not intend. Broad disclosure obligations, he contends, would deter funders from backing cases at all, and the resulting shortfall would fall hardest on plaintiffs without institutional balance sheets behind them.

Johnson illustrates the point with Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who lost an estimated 40% of his income during years of litigation before prevailing at the Supreme Court with backing from Alliance Defending Freedom. Absent outside support, he writes, Phillips "could have easily been forced to surrender."

The column is notable less for its policy analysis than for its author. Litigation funding restrictions have advanced largely on Republican votes, and the industry's defenders have generally come from the plaintiffs' bar. Johnson's framing, that citizens facing wealthy opponents should not be forced to fight alone, is an attempt to contest that ground.

Commercial

Five Years On, Arizona’s ABS Data Shows No Systemic Ethical Breakdown, Article Argues

An article published in the Arizona State University Corporate and Business Law Journal argues that five years of operating data under Arizona's Alternative Business Structure framework has not produced the ethical failures its opponents predicted, and that the debate is moving from theoretical objections to observable outcomes.

Writing in the ASU Corporate and Business Law Journal, Alex Chucri traces the framework to August 2020, when Arizona became the first state to eliminate ABA Model Rule 5.4 and permit non-lawyer ownership of law firms, with the ABS regime taking effect on January 1, 2021 under Arizona Supreme Court order R-20-0034. The central claim is structural: the state did not remove oversight so much as replace blanket prohibition with licensing, compliance obligations and regulatory accountability. Non-lawyers may hold equity, share profits and participate in management, but only under Supreme Court supervision, with approved compliance counsel, reporting procedures and audit requirements.

The article marshals the program's numbers. Licenses grew from two approvals in 2020 to 15 in 2021 and 25 in each of 2022 and 2023, reaching approximately 150 licensed entities by March 2026, with 114 ABSs actively operating during 2024. No ethics complaints were filed against ABS entities in the program's first three years; the first arrived in 2024, when the State Bar initiated disciplinary action involving two ABS-affiliated attorneys. A preliminary analysis of 2024 disciplinary actions, which the author acknowledges is limited by incomplete ABS staffing data, suggests ABS-affiliated lawyers faced discipline at a rate well below the broader Arizona attorney population.

Readers should weigh the source. Chucri is founder and CEO of Pravati Capital and in 2024 founded 1787 Legal Group, the Scottsdale ABS the article offers as its case in point. The argument nonetheless lands at a moment when several states, Illinois among them this week, are moving in the opposite direction, and Arizona remains the only jurisdiction with a five-year record to argue from.