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Longford Capital Continues to Add to its Team of Experienced Litigators and Trial Lawyers with the Addition of Marc Cavan as Director

CHICAGO – July 13, 2020 – Longford Capital today announced that Marc A. Cavan has joined the firm asDirector. Mr. Cavan will assist with investment sourcing, due diligence, and monitoring of portfolio investments, supporting Longford’s Chicago and Dallas offices.

Mr. Cavan is an experienced patent litigator. He has served as lead counsel for clients in the life sciences, healthcare, and technology industries and has successfully handled patent cases in federal courts throughout the United States. Mr. Cavan’s experience includes jury trials, ANDA Hatch-Waxman litigation, arbitrations, and proceedings before the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). He is registered as a patent attorney with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, and his clients have ranged from start-ups to leading multinationals. Mr. Cavan is also experienced with trade secrets, commercial litigation, and licensing, and he has advised on intellectual property issues for significant mergers and private equity investments.

Mr. Cavan’s litigation and counseling expertise has included a range of technologies, including medical devices, pharmaceuticals, health care technology, electronic health records, nanotechnology, software, wireless and internet technology, automotive components, energy, and consumer products.

Prior to joining Longford Capital, Mr. Cavan was a partner in some of the most prestigious law firms in the country. Mr. Cavan started his career at Sidley Austin LLP (associate 1998-2006; partner 2006-2011) and was also a partner in the Chicago offices of Ropes & Gray LLP (2011-2015) and Baker McKenzie LLP (2015-2018). Most recently, Mr. Cavan served as the chair of the intellectual property practice at Harrison Law LLC, a Chicago litigation boutique.

During his career in private practice, Mr. Cavan earned recognition as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA, International Asset Management, and SuperLawyers. For several years, Mr. Cavan served as a co-chair the Patent Law Institute’s Patent Boot Camp, presenting on strategic patenting issues.

Mr. Cavan graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, where he taught legal writing as a member of the Board of Student Advisers and served on the editorial board of the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology. Mr. Cavan graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from DukeUniversity with a B.S. in Biology. After graduating from Duke, Mr. Cavan taught as an Annenberg Fellow and master at Eton College in Windsor, England.

Mr. Cavan has been admitted to practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Illinois, and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin. Mr. Cavan has also been a member of the Trial Bar for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

“The current economic climate of uncertainty and volatility has resulted in a jump in demand for our capital and we are expanding our team in response. Before joining Longford, Marc assisted us in the investment selection process evaluating the strength of patent claims; we know his talent as a patent litigator, and we are fortunate to have Marc join our team,” stated Michael A. Nicolas, Managing Director of Longford Capital.

About Longford Capital

Longford Capital is a leading private investment company with more than $1 billion in assets under management that provides capital to leading law firms, public and private companies, universities, government agencies, and other entities involved in large-scale, commercial legal disputes. The firm manages a diversified portfolio, and considers investments in subject matter areas where it has developed considerable expertise, including, business-to-business contract claims, antitrust and trade regulation claims, intellectual property claims (including patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret), fiduciary duty claims, fraud claims, claims in bankruptcy and liquidation, domestic and international arbitrations, and a variety of others. For additional information about Longford Capital, please visit www.longfordcapital.com.

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Announcements Commercial Legal Innovation

Sentry Expands Free Funding Market Search for Litigators

By John Freund |

Sentry Funding’s free tool enabling litigators to instantly search the funding market on behalf of clients has been expanded.

Sentry’s free ‘decision in principle’ feature enables lawyers to evidence to clients that they have conducted a broad market search, even if funding is not ultimately taken out.

Having deployed £125m in funding across a range of case types, Sentry now has access to an even broader funding marketplace, covering 34 global jurisdictions. Finance is provided by 13 funders, five of which are members of the Association of Litigation Funders.

With the recent addition of Sentry’s first US-based funder, the US offering will now be expanding over the next few months. 

A faster process

Sentry has deployed the latest technology to make the search for funding even easier. 

  • The intuitive application process now only asks questions relevant to previous answers, saving lawyers time.
  • The commercial marketplace has been redeveloped with 63 new data points added to the funder criteria matrix - improving the accuracy of case / funder matching
  • Sentry has also begun building out its AI capabilities, starting with an automated auditing tool for live case progression audits. 

Tom Webster, chief executive officer at Sentry Funding, said:

‘By broadening our reach and speeding up the process, we’re making it even easier for lawyers to raise funding. We’re also giving litigators an easy way to show clients they have fully researched the market, rather than just approaching one or two funders. 

‘The service is free to use, so even if clients decide they do not ultimately want funding or if none is available for that case, for the lawyer, it makes sense to use our “decision in principle” feature, so they can put evidence on file that they did check the market.’

Sentry Funding is an SaaS (software as a service) technology provider that gives solicitors access to a diverse marketplace of litigation funders. It works with solicitors, funders and third-party providers to ensure claimants are getting the most efficient service for their funding needs. 

The Sentry Portal also acts as a case management system that runs a transparent digital case file for solicitors, funders, after-the-event insurance providers, barristers, cost lawyers and other relevant third parties.

Announcements Commercial

NorthWall Capital Hits €2.9 B AUM on Private Credit Momentum

By John Freund |

NorthWall Capital has rocketed past €2.9 billion in assets under management after pulling in an additional €1.6 billion of institutional capital in 2025 alone. The London-based alternative credit manager says the surge reflects allocators’ intensifying hunt for scaled, multi-strategy platforms as Europe’s banks retrench and borrowers seek bespoke sources of credit.

A press release from NorthWall Capital details first-close totals across four distinct strategies. The flagship Credit Opportunities fund secured €731 million—already eclipsing its prior vintage—while the newly launched Senior Lending vehicle raised $503 million, translating to roughly $750 million of deployable firepower once leverage is applied. Asset-Backed Opportunities collected €252 million for collateral-rich loans in sectors underserved by traditional lenders, and the specialist Legal Assets platform locked down $169 million to extend the firm’s law-firm lending programme.

Founder and CIO Fabian Chrobog said the fundraising validates “the consistency of our approach” and NorthWall’s ability to craft solutions that resonate with investors and counterparties alike. With headcount slated to hit 40 by year-end, the firm plans to lean further into complex, situational credit born of bank deleveraging, regulatory shifts and sponsors’ need for certainty of execution.

Announcements Commercial People Moves

Victory Park Expands Legal Credit Leadership with Maleson Promotion

By John Freund |

Victory Park Capital (VPC), a global alternative asset manager specializing in private credit, has announced that Justin Maleson will expand his role to Managing Director, co-heading the firm’s legal credit investment strategy. The promotion underscores VPC’s ongoing investment in its legal finance capabilities and follows Maleson’s initial appointment in 2024 as Assistant General Counsel.

An announcement from Victory Park Capital details Maleson’s new responsibilities, which include sourcing, analyzing, and managing investments across legal assets, while maintaining oversight of the firm’s legal operations. He joins Chad Clamage in co-leading the strategy, working alongside team members Hugo Lestiboudois and Andrew Pascal, under the continued oversight of VPC CEO and founder Richard Levy.

Maleson brings a strong background in litigation finance and commercial law to the position. Before joining VPC, he served as a director at Longford Capital, where he specialized in originating and managing litigation funding transactions. His earlier tenure as a litigation partner at Jenner & Block further deepened his exposure to complex legal matters, equipping him with the expertise needed to navigate the nuanced legal credit space.

VPC’s legal credit team emphasizes an asset-backed lending model, prioritizing downside protection and predictable income streams. The firm aims to capitalize on inefficiencies within the legal funding market by leveraging its internal expertise and broad network of relationships. With Maleson’s appointment, VPC signals its intent to further scale its legal credit strategy, positioning itself as a key player in the evolving legal finance sector.

Maleson’s elevation comes at a time of increasing sophistication in litigation finance, where experienced legal minds are playing a pivotal role in portfolio construction and risk management. As VPC bolsters its leadership, the move may foreshadow further institutionalization of legal asset investing and heightened competition in a maturing market segment.