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Lex Ferenda Litigation Funding Expands to Denver; Announces Addition of Prominent Litigator and In-House Attorney Andrew Kelley

Lex Ferenda Litigation Funding Expands to Denver; Announces Addition of Prominent Litigator and In-House Attorney Andrew Kelley

Lex Ferenda Litigation Funding LLC “LF2” is pleased to announce its expansion to Denver, Colorado, with the addition of prominent in-house attorney and litigator, Andrew Kelley, who joins as Managing Director, Underwriting and Risk. He was previously Associate General Counsel and head of commercial litigation at Fortune 500 company, DaVita Inc. (NYSE: DVA). “Andrew is an incredibly talented, business-oriented leader and lawyer with a long track record of successfully representing clients both as outside counsel and as in-house client representative,” said Michael German, Chief Investment Officer at LF2. “LF2’s clients will benefit from Andrew’s deep understanding of the dispute resolution process, which led Andrew to successfully recover hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of his clients during the course of his career,” said German. LF2’s expansion to Denver with Mr. Kelley marks an inflection point at the firm: “Our new outpost in the Rockies gives us key access to important US markets for dispute resolution,” said Chief Operating Officer Chris Baildon. “With the addition of Andrew substantially focused on underwriting and risk management, clients can expect faster decisions, stronger engagement, and a supportive investment management team that is able to add value exponentially,” said Baildon. Before DaVita, Andrew was General Counsel to a private equity firm headquartered in Colorado. Before that he was outside counsel at two different international law firms in Colorado. Andrew received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his Bachelor of Arts from University of Colorado, Boulder. He is actively licensed to practice law in Colorado. “I am excited to be joining the team at LF2 and look forward to applying my experience and training in this new and exciting space,” said Kelley. “As a senior advisor to large companies, our advice and analysis is often a combination of sound legal advice and good business acumen, and I look forward to helping our clients and their counsel successfully navigate the dispute resolution process without having to worry about how to pay for their representation,” said Kelley. ABOUT LEX FERENDA LITIGATION FUNDING LF2 is a commercial litigation finance company anchored by institutional capital. LF2 is structured with the objective of meeting the highest standards in investment process management, quality control, risk management, and compliance. For further information about LF2, please visit: www.lf-2.com. For Investor Relations or other questions, please contact: Chris Baildon.

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Deminor’s Wouter de Jong Sees Untapped Dutch Demand for Commercial and Patent Dispute Funding

Deminor's newest Dutch hire has said many sound business-to-business disputes in the Netherlands go unpursued because of cost, risk or resource constraints, pointing to an opening for litigation funders.

As reported by Litigation Finance Insider, Wouter de Jong discussed his move into funding in an interview published on 4 October. De Jong joined Deminor as Senior Legal Counsel in its Utrecht office after more than 14 years in disputes, including eight as a patent litigator in private practice and six as Head of Litigation at a major international company, as Deminor announced in September.

He said litigation funding is less unfamiliar to Dutch companies than it was 15 years ago but remains poorly understood. Two misconceptions recur with clients: the non-recourse "no cure, no pay" structure, and the extent to which Deminor offers litigation expertise beyond capital. He credited the Netherlands' legal system, efficient proceedings and strong judiciary for producing meaningful outcomes within reasonable timeframes.

De Jong also highlighted intellectual property. The Unified Patent Court, he said, lets patentees resolve disputes across larger territories in a single forum, and he has seen rising local inquiries about patent funding. Patent cases demand deeper underwriting of the technology and the scope of protection, making them slower to assess than typical commercial disputes.

The interview signals where Deminor expects growth from its Dutch presence, which opened in June as its tenth office worldwide: single-claim commercial and IP disputes, rather than the collective actions for which the Dutch market is better known.

Loopa Finance’s Gouveia Urges Litigation Funding Rules That Protect Transparency Without Capping Returns

A senior investment manager at Loopa Finance has argued that litigation finance regulation should safeguard transparency and independence without restricting pricing, access to capital or the industry's ability to innovate.

As reported by Litigation Finance Insider, Marina Gouveia, Senior Investment Manager at Loopa Finance, said in a commentary published on 4 October that standards-based oversight is preferable to prescriptive statutory rules. She identified transparency, independence, contractual clarity and the integrity of proceedings as the priorities.

Gouveia noted that the market spans single-case funding, portfolio financing, award monetisation and law firm or corporate structures, and that sophisticated corporate clients and individual consumers have very different needs. A uniform regime, she suggested, would fit neither well. She also warned that return caps could make some claims less commercially attractive to finance, particularly those needing large upfront costs or long proceedings, which could narrow access to justice.

She accepted that some regulatory goals are legitimate, including managing conflicts of interest, ensuring parties understand their agreements, verifying that funders have the resources to perform, and protecting claimants' control over strategy and settlement. Her preferred route is standards that evolve through courts, arbitral institutions, counsel and funders as new risks emerge, rather than legislation attempting to anticipate future products.

The piece names no specific jurisdictions or bills. It arrives as regulators in the UK, EU and several US states continue to debate disclosure and oversight rules, and it reflects the self-regulation approach funders such as Loopa have promoted through bodies including the European Litigation Funders Association.

PGMBM Opposes Bid to Hold 400,000-Claimant Mariana Hearing in Private

Pogust Goodhead, trading as PGMBM, has said it is opposing an application to hold today's High Court hearing on who represents more than 400,000 claimants in the Mariana Dam litigation under seal.

According to a statement issued by PGMBM, lawyers acting for the Mariana Client Committee served an application on Monday asking the court to hold the hearing in private. A PGMBM spokesperson said the firm believes the move "flies in the face of access to justice" for the claimants affected by the disaster, and described transparency for clients as fundamental. PGMBM said it is urgently asking the judge to reject the application in the public interest.

The hearing is an expedited two-day session on 5 and 6 October to decide which firm should act for the claimants. As Legal Futures reported, the High Court earlier refused a request to stay the proceedings and directed that the representation dispute be determined at that hearing, rejecting calls for it to be held in private. The dispute pits PGMBM against Bailey Glasser International, which the Client Committee has sought to instruct in its place.

The statement did not say how the court has responded to the new application, and the application itself was supplied to media only as an attachment. PGMBM's account is one side of a contested matter, and the Client Committee's lawyers have not been quoted.

The fight over the case, a claim against BHP over the 2015 Fundão dam collapse, has drawn attention across the litigation funding market because control of a mass claim of this size determines how funders, lawyers and claimants are aligned ahead of the quantum trial listed for April 2027.