Trending Now

Member Spotlight: Susanna Taylor

By John Freund |

Susanna Taylor is Head of Investments – APAC, for Litigation Capital Management (LCM). Susanna leads LCM’s team of Investment Managers in Australia and Singapore and is responsible for overseeing the sourcing, due diligence and management of LCM’s investment activities across the APAC region.

Susanna is a highly experienced and skilled operator being active in the litigation funding industry since 2014 when she joined LCM. Since that time Susanna has been responsible for sourcing, underwriting and managing a large and diverse portfolio of dispute projects consisting of commercial disputes, class actions, insolvency claims and international arbitration.

Susanna sits on LCM’s investment committees for both APAC and EMEA and is intimately involved in the operational aspects of LCM’s business, taking part in regulatory and compliance and capital raising activities, investor relations and the expansion of LCM to new jurisdictions.

Prior to joining LCM in 2014, Susanna was a litigation specialist with Norton Rose Fulbright in Sydney where her practice canvassed class actions, financial institutions disputes, contentious regulatory work (including work for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission) and corporate disputes. Before joining Norton Rose Fulbright, Susanna practised in London for UK firm Hammonds Suddards Edge where her focus was on construction litigation. Susanna’s Chambers and Partners profile describes her as “one of the top operators in the industry,” and as “an extremely impressive litigation funder with a strong ability to cut to the commercial reality of claims.”

Company Name & Description:  LCM specialises in providing bespoke dispute finance solutions to facilitate the pursuit and successful recovery of funds from legal claims, while protecting our clients from the downside risk associated with disputes. Founded in 1998, LCM is one of Australia’s most experienced and successful disputes finance companies. LCM has completed over 260 cases and has assisted hundreds of companies and individuals in achieving significant recoveries from claims that, without LCM, may not have been pursued due to the associated costs and risks.

All of LCM’s Investment Managers are former litigators with the level of experience required to facilitate successful outcomes in disputes. LCM’s team is highly skilled in the assessment of claims and in providing strategic assistance throughout the process of determining the dispute. LCM has an unparalleled track record, driven by effective project selection, active project management and robust risk management. LCM’s capability stems from being a pioneer of the industry with more than 25 years of disputes finance experience.

LCM is listed on AIM (at the London Stock Exchange), trading under the ticker LIT.

Company Website https://lcmfinance.com/

Year Founded: 1998

Headquarters: Headquartered in Sydney, with offices in London, Singapore, Brisbane and Melbourne

Area of Focus: Arbitration, Insolvency Claims, Commercial Claims, Class Actions

Member Quote: “Disputes finance is a risk management tool which allows a variety of claimants from small to large to leverage their dispute assets in order to transfer the costs and risk of a dispute to a third party funder.  Being involved in structuring these finance solutions and sitting alongside claimants to assist them to reach a successful outcome makes this a very rewarding industry to be a part of“.

About the author

Commercial

View All

iLA Law Firm Expands Services to Include Litigation Funding Agreements

By Harry Moran |

As the relationship between litigation funders and law firms continues to grow intertwined, we are not only seeing funders getting more involved in the ownership of law firms, but also specialist law firms looking to provide their own niche litigation funding services.

An article in Legal Futures covers the expansion of iLA into the business of litigation funding agreements, with the Poole-based law firm providing this new service offering to a range of clients from individuals to SMEs. iLA’s co-founder and chief finance officer, Luke Baldwin, explained that one aspect of the law firm’s litigation funding service includes work on matrimonial cases, providing funding of between £25,000 to £75,000 to individual clients. Other examples include funding for disputes brought by SMEs over ‘undisclosed commissions on energy contracts’, or individuals with claims relating to car finance agreements.

iLA was founded in March 2022 by Mr Baldwin and Anastasia Ttofis, with both co-founders having previously worked together on their Bournemouth-based brokerage business, Niche Specialist Finance. Since its launch, iLA has grown from servicing 13 clients in its first month to providing independent legal advice to between 600 and 700 clients. iLA’s growth has been bolstered by a series of partnerships with other solicitors, brokers and lenders, including a partnership with the specialist mortgage lender, Keystone Property Finance.

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 Mackay 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.

Read More

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.”