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Member Spotlight: Jessica Fillmore

By John Freund |

Jessica Fillmore, MBA, is Co-Founder of Élan™, a consulting agency that specializes in business growth services. Her extensive background has created a diverse and robust wealth of knowledge and experience in digital media, legal notification strategy and implementation, marketing strategy, legal branding, and campaign building.

During her tenure, she has planned and implemented high-profile, complex legal notice communication programs. Jessica also has vast experience as a digital media expert and has worked with global clients across retail B2B, CPG, Education, and Healthcare industries. She leverages this experience as well as access to top industry tools to effectively plan and execute notification plans. 

Jessica has co-authored and published on various aspects of modern legal notice, online claim filings, and current legal notification in class action litigation. She was a lead contributing author for Élan Legal Media’s “State of Media, 2022”, “Seven Realities of Modern Legal Notice”, and “How We Drive Online Claim Filings”. 

In the course of her legal marketing experience, she has designed legal notices for a wide range of cases including retail customer, defective drug and device, targeted metropolitan area, nationwide, and more, all resulting in a 100% success rate for delivering estimated impressions and notice requirements. She has also served as an expert in determining ways in which firms can increase effectiveness on a number of cases including catastrophic injury, medical malpractice birth injury, product liability, and more. 

Jessica Fillmore is accredited as a Certified Scrum Master by the Scrum Alliance. She has served on the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association. She has also co-taught an advanced advertising course for MBA candidates at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management. 

Company Name and Description: Elan™ is a strategic marketing and consulting team dedicated to driving measurable business growth. We combine a deep understanding of lead generation, cutting-edge marketing tactics, and optimized lead intake to deliver exceptional results. Our team of experienced analysts, media planners, and creatives specializes in the legal and medical industries, allowing us to tailor our solutions to your unique needs.

Here’s what sets us apart:

  • Data-driven optimization: We leverage advanced analytics to ensure your marketing spend delivers the highest possible return on investment (ROI).
  • Industry expertise: Our team has a proven track record of success in the legal and medical fields, which grants us an understanding of the specific challenges and opportunities you face on a daily basis.
  • Focus on results: We’re not interested in empty promises. We partner with you to achieve tangible growth that moves the needle for your business, and have results that show it.

Élan provides clear and effective marketing solutions to propel your business forward.

Company Website: elanteams.com 

Year Founded:  2017

Headquarters:  Minneapolis, MN

Area of Focus: Élan works with Litigation Funding Groups to bridge the gap between funded marketing plans and the top tier law firms that support them. When Élan partners with a funded law firm, we work to ensure not only a clear path of transparent data for all campaign stakeholders, but also offer a strategic approach to building and supporting a quality brand for the firm long term — funded or not. We work to build long term partnerships that continuously evolve and grow across every point of the campaign. 

Member Quote: 

“When working with our litigation funding partners, we eliminate any work a client would typically need to handle. Whether that’s working with the law firm, lead intake team, or even case value reports, we manage every component of a funded marketing campaign so that you can focus on your investors. Our goal is to create a streamlined process while providing transparency for every invested dollar spent.”

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John Freund

John Freund

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Announcements Commercial People Moves

ALFA Welcomes Mackay Chapman as Newest Associate Member

By Harry Moran |

In a post on LinkedIn, The Association of Litigation Funders of Australia (ALFA) announced that it is welcoming Mackay Chapman as its newest Associate Member. Mackay Chapman becomes the 12th Associate Member of ALFA, following the inclusion of Litica in April of this year.

Mackay Chapman is a boutique legal and advisory firm, specialising in high-stakes regulatory, financial services and insolvency disputes. The Melbourne-based law firm was founded in 2016 by Dan Maclay and Michael Chapman, who bring 25 years of experience in complex disputes to the business.More information about Mackay Chapman can be found on its website.

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Case Developments Commercial

Deminor Announces Settlement in Danish OW Bunker Case

By Harry Moran |

An announcement from Deminor Litigation Funding revealed that a settlement has been reached in the OW Bunker action in Demark, which Deminor funded litigation brought by a group of 20 institutional investors against the investment banks Carnegie and Morgan Stanley.

This is part of a wider group of actions originating from OW Bunker’s 2014 bankruptcy, which led to significant financial losses for both company creditors and shareholders who had invested in the company. These other cases were brought against several defendants, including OW Bunker and its former management and Board of Directors, Altor Fund II, and the aforementioned investment banks.

The settlement provides compensation for plaintiffs across the four legal actions, with a total value of approximately 645 million DKK, including legal costs. The settlement agreement requires the parties to ‘waive any further claims against each other relating to OW Bunker’. Deminor’s announcement makes clear that ‘none of the defendants have acknowledged any legal responsibility in the group of linked cases in connection with the settlement.’

Charles Demoulin, Chief Investment Officer of Deminor, said that “the settlement makes it possible for our clients to benefit from a reasonable compensation for their losses”, and that they were advising the client “to accept this solution which represents a better alternative to continuing the litigation with the resulting uncertainties.” Joeri Klein, General Counsel Netherlands and Co-head Investment Recovery of Deminor, said that the settlement had demonstrated that “in Denmark it has now proven to be possible to find a balanced solution to redress investor related claims.”

Case Developments Commercial

Burford German Funding Sued Over Hausfeld Ownership Stake

By Harry Moran |

The ownership or funding of law firms by litigation funders continues to be a hot topic in the world of legal funding, with models such as alternative business structures (ABS) gaining momentum in places like Arizona. However, a complaint filed by a client in Delaware reveals a falling out due to the reverse funding model, where a law firm maintained an ownership stake in the funder.

Reporting by Bloomberg Law covers a new lawsuit brought against Burford German Funding (BGF), an affiliate of Burford Capital, by a client who claims that the funder failed to disclose the fact that BGF was partly owned by the same law firm it nominated to lead the client’s antitrust cases. Financialright Claims GMBH (FRC) alleges that when it negotiated the funding agreement with BGF for its antitrust litigation against the trucks cartel, it had no knowledge “that Hausfeld  was  also  a  part  owner  of  BGF  through  an  entity  called German Litigation Solutions LLC (“GLS”) or that one of the lead German partners at Hausfeld responsible for the firm’s representation of FRC had a personal stake.”

The complaint, filed by FRC in the Delaware Superior Court, explains that as Hausfeld is part-owner of BGF, and the funding agreement “provides for a share of FRC’s recoveries in the Trucks Litigations to flow to FRC’s lawyers”, this constitutes a contingency fee arrangement which are illegal under German law.  FRC had filed a lawsuit against Hausfeld in a German court and then applied for discovery from BGF, Burford and GLS in the Delaware District Court, which was followed by an assertion by these parties that the application for discovery “is subject to mandatory arbitration” under the terms of the funding agreement.

FRC argues that “as  a  direct  result  of  BGF’s  fraud  on  FRC,  FRC  did  agree  to  the Arbitration Agreement that—according to BGF—subsumes disputes between FRC and GLS.” However, FRC claims that it “would  never  have  agreed  to  an  arbitration  clause  requiring  it  to arbitrate claims against Hausfeld”, were it not for the concealment of Hausfeld’s ownership stake in BGF. FRC is therefore asking the Superior Court to declare that “BGF fraudulently induced  FRC  into  agreeing  to  the  Arbitration  Agreement”, and that the agreement should be declared both invalid and unenforceable.

Lisa Sharrow, spokesperson at Hausfeld LLP, provided the following statement:  “The US-based Hausfeld LLP and the UK-based Hausfeld & Co LLP hold indirect economic minority interests in Burford German Funding. These are separate legal entities from Hausfeld Rechtsanwälte LLP that do not practice law in Germany. Burford German Funding was of course developed and set up in a way that was fully compliant with all relevant regulations.”

David Helfenbein, spokesperson at Burford, also provided a response to Bloomberg via email: “There is a dispute in Germany between a client Burford has funded and its lawyers. Burford is not a party to that dispute and its outcome has no impact on us. This Delaware proceeding is a third-party discovery request to Burford for material for the German litigation, which Burford believes should be adjudicated in arbitration and not in the Delaware courts.”

The full complaint filed by FRC can be read here.

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