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Therium Makes Case for Monetization of Corporate Litigation Assets in New Publication

Therium Makes Case for Monetization of Corporate Litigation Assets in New Publication

Therium, a leading global provider of litigation, arbitration and specialty legal finance, is pleased to announce the launch of a new publication aimed at educating corporations and their legal departments on the importance of monetizing their litigation assets through structured affirmative recovery programs. A Good Offense: The Therium Guide to Creating an Affirmative Recovery Program, is available as a progressive eBook, beginning today with the release of chapter 1, which introduces the concept of affirmative recovery and delves into its history. New chapters will be released during the last week of each month moving forward.

The legal departments of the world’s corporations were created out of necessity. Legal has always been viewed as a cost center, defending potentially costly claims against the company as efficiently as it can, and ensuring that transactions and other contractual matters are structured properly. Legal departments, however, regularly bypass potentially valuable litigation claims because the financial and other risks required to monetize litigation assets are viewed as too steep. That was already the case in a strong economy, let alone the current downturn. COVID-19 and the subsequent economic downturn are causing corporations to lose value each day, leading to tighter budgets and greater pressure on all departments. At the same time, they must find revenue wherever they can.

“Corporate legal departments have the potential to become drivers of revenue if they can successfully monetize litigation claims,” said Eric Blinderman, CEO of Therium US and one of the publication’s co-authors. “In this economy it is more important than ever that they do just that. We developed this eBook to assist in-house counsel in identifying potential high-value claims and mitigating a broad range of internal and external risks as they formalize a program for initiating plaintiff-side litigation.”

After using the first chapter to lay the groundwork for the story of affirmative claims, future chapters will include:

  • Structuring an affirmative recovery program
  • Identifying claims
  • Selecting claims and managing risk
  • Financing litigation
  • Managing outside counsel
  • Making settlement decisions
  • Achieving buy-in (and maintaining it)

Chapter 1 Abstract 

In 2004, the legal department of E.I. du Point de Nemours and Co. launched an initiative to maximize its recoveries and contribute to the company’s bottom line. “When a certain amount is at stake,” DuPont’s then-assistant general counsel Tom Sager said, “we have an obligation as counsel to the company to pursue claims.”

To those outside the legal profession, this posture may sound unremarkable. But historically, recovering such funds has not been a priority. DuPont’s strategy changed all that. In 2004, its law department recovered $100 million for the company. Within a decade, it had recovered more than $2.6 billion. That figure is enough to establish the obvious benefit of a program like DuPont’s, known as “affirmative recovery programs.” And they have many additional advantages. Among them is the satisfaction of achieving the oft stated but rarely realized goal of making a legal department a profit center rather than a cost center.

Which raises an obvious question: why aren’t more companies following their lead?

In recent years, corporate legal departments have taken tentative steps toward adopting a more aggressive mindset. Three-quarters of the Fortune 500 have filed lawsuits as plaintiffs in what could be called “affirmative recovery” matters. But a much smaller portion of the Fortune 500 have created their own programs.

Complacency and tradition are the two most basic forces that have kept legal departments from asserting legal claims. Conventional wisdom has long held that it’s not the general counsel’s job to make money for the company. Instead, lawyers served the singular function of defending the company from legal risk. And the generally defensive orientation of in-house legal departments made a comfortable fit with the risk-averse nature of its lawyers.

Despite the forces keeping legal departments from bringing lawsuits, they have gradually begun to adopt a plaintiff’s mentality. We can trace the origins of the movement as far back as the 1980s, when a financial crisis led Texas Instruments and IBM to turn to their legal departments for patent licensing revenue. These and similar efforts revealed that legal departments could do more than protect companies from risk. They could become strategic actors generating meaningful revenue.

With the Great Recession of 2008, companies came under great pressure to reduce costs, and legal departments were no longer immune. The field of “legal operations,” devoted to imposing discipline on the spending of corporate legal departments, was born. Corporate legal budgets now needed defending, and previously untouchable decisions came under scrutiny. In short, corporate legal departments began to be judged on business terms. Today, the timing is right for another leap in the adoption of affirmative recovery programs. The impediments to bringing affirmative claims have largely eroded, and the riddle of funding affirmative cases has been addressed by the use of litigation funding. And the thirst for revenue from corporate legal departments has not been this palpable since the Great Recession.

About Therium

Therium is a leading global provider of litigation, arbitration and specialty legal finance active in England and Wales and internationally since 2009.  Over that period, Therium has funded claims with a total value exceeding £34 billion including many of the largest and most high profile funded cases.  The firm has investment teams in the UK, USA, Australia, Spain, Germany and Oslo, supplementing its resources in its corporate headquarters in Jersey, Channel Islands.

Therium has established a track record of success in litigation finance in all forms including single case litigation and arbitration funding, funding law firms and funding portfolios of litigation and arbitration claims.  This track record enabled the firm to raise the then single largest investment into litigation finance of £200 million in 2015. Therium has raised over $1 billion since its foundation, which includes the latest £325 million fund raised in February 2019.

Therium has consistently been at the forefront of innovation in litigation finance, pioneering the combined use of insurance tools alongside funding vehicles, and introducing portfolio funding products into the UK.  The firm’s ability to develop innovative funding arrangements and bespoke financial solutions for litigants and law firms complements its unmatched experience and rigorous approach to funding a wide range of commercial disputes throughout the world.

www.therium.com

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Padronus Finances Collective Action Against Meta Over Illegal Surveillance

By John Freund |

Austrian litigation funder Padronus is financing the largest collective action ever filed in the German-speaking world. The case targets Meta’s illegal surveillance practices.

Together with the Austrian Consumer Protection Association (VSV) as claimant, the German law firm Baumeister & Kollegen, and the Austrian law firm Salburg Rechtsanwälte, Padronus has filed collective actions in both Germany and Austria against Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. The lawsuits challenge Meta’s extensive surveillance of the public, which, according to Padronus and VSV, violates European data protection law.

“Meta knows far more about us than we imagine – from our shopping habits and searches for medication to personal struggles. This is made possible by so-called business tools that are deployed across the internet. The U.S. corporation is present on third-party sites even when we are logged out of its platforms or when our browser settings promise privacy. This breaches the GDPR,” explains Richard Eibl, Managing Director of Padronus.

Meta generates revenue by allowing companies to place paid advertisements on Instagram and Facebook. Which ad is shown to which user depends on the user’s interests, identified by Meta’s algorithm based on platform activity and social connections. In addition, Meta has developed tools such as the “Meta Pixel,” embedded on countless third-party websites, including those dealing with sensitive personal matters. The “Conversions API” is integrated directly on web servers, meaning data collection no longer occurs on the user’s device and cannot be detected or disabled, even by technically savvy users. It bypasses cookie restrictions, incognito mode, or VPN usage.

Millions of businesses worldwide use these tools to target consumers and analyze ad effectiveness. “Use of these technologies is now omnipresent and an integral part of daily internet usage. Every user becomes uniquely identifiable to Meta at all times as soon as they browse third-party sites, even if not logged into Facebook or Instagram. Meta learns which pages and subpages are visited, what is clicked, searched, and purchased,” says Eibl. He adds: “This surveillance has gone further than George Orwell anticipated in 1984 – at least his protagonist was aware of the extent of his surveillance.”

While Meta users can configure settings on Instagram and Facebook to prevent the collected data from being used for the delivery of personalized advertising, the data itself is nevertheless already transmitted to Meta from third-party websites prior to obtaining consent to cookies. Meta then, without exception, transfers the data worldwide to third countries, in particular to the United States, where it evaluates the data to an unknown extent and passes it on to third parties such as service providers, external researchers, and authorities.

Numerous German district courts (including Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Leipzig) and more than 70 other courts have already confirmed Meta’s illegal surveillance in over 700 ongoing individual lawsuits. These first-instance rulings, achieved by lawyers Baumeister & Kollegen, are not yet final. Eibl notes: “The courts have awarded plaintiffs immaterial damages of up to €5,000. If only one in ten of the up to 50 million affected individuals in Germany joins the collective action, the dispute value rises to €25 billion. This is the largest lawsuit ever filed in the German-speaking world.”

Meta’s lack of seriousness about user privacy is well-documented. In 2023, Ireland’s data protection authority fined Meta €1.2 billion for illegal U.S. data transfers. In 2021, Luxembourg imposed a €746 million fine for misuse of user data for advertising. In 2024, Ireland again fined Meta €251 million for a major security breach. In July 2025, a U.S. lawsuit was launched against several Meta executives, demanding $8 billion in damages for systematic violations of an FTC privacy order. Richard Eibl notes: “This case goes to the heart of Meta’s business model. If we succeed, Meta will have to stop this unlawful spying in our countries.”

The new collective action mechanism for qualified entities such as VSV is a novel legal instrument. If successful, the unlawful practice must be ceased, and compensation paid to consumers who have joined the case.

The lawsuit is expected to trigger political tensions with the current protectionist U.S. administration. Only last week, the U.S. President again threatened the EU with new tariffs after the Commission imposed a €2.95 billion fine on Google. “We expect the U.S. government will also try to exert pressure in our case to shield Meta. But European data protection law is not negotiable, and we are certain we will not bow to such pressure,” says Julius Richter, also Managing Director of Padronus.

Consumers in Austria and Germany can now register at meta-klage.de and meta-klage.at to join the collective action without any cost risk. Padronus covers all litigation expenses; only in the event of success will a commission be deducted from the recovered amount.

Kerberos Named Finalist for 2025 CIO Industry Innovation Awards in Private Credit

By John Freund |

Kerberos Capital Management has been named one of only four finalists nationwide for Chief Investment Officer (CIO) magazine’s 2025 Industry Innovation Awards in the Private Credit category.

Each year, CIO magazine honors organizations that demonstrate “truly exceptional approaches to the challenges of institutional asset ownership and asset management.” This recognition highlights Kerberos’ leadership in private credit and its innovative strategies that continue to set new standards in the institutional investing market.

“We are proud to be recognized among the top firms in the country for our work in private credit,” said Joe Siprut, CEO & CIO of Kerberos Capital Management. “This acknowledgment underscores our team’s commitment to innovation, disciplined risk management, and delivering differentiated value to our investors.”

Kerberos’ inclusion as a finalist reinforces its growing national reputation as a forward-thinking investment manager that thrives on tackling complex challenges, seeking to generate alpha from complexity but not from increased risk.

About Kerberos Capital Management

Kerberos Capital Management is an SEC-registered investment adviser and alternative investment manager, providing creative solutions for those seeking capital in special situations. Kerberos’ flagship private credit strategy emphasizes legal assets and other complex collateral. Kerberos manages both a pooled vehicle and separate accounts for institutional and high net worth investors worldwide.

New North Litigation Capital Launches, Backed by £50 Million in Senior Secured Financing from Pollen Street Capital

By John Freund |

Pollen Street Capital ("Pollen Street") today announces a new senior secured credit facility of up to £50 million to New North Litigation Capital (“New North”). New North is a commercial litigation finance company and a direct subsidiary of Capital Law, a Cardiff based law firm founded in 2006.

Capital Law has a strong track record in commercial litigation, having closed over 400 claimant cases since 2001 with a 95% win rate. Drawing on its senior leadership and experienced disputes team, Capital Law launched New North to address the underserved small to mid-market segment of commercial litigation market. 

New North will be the only litigation financier in the UK owned and operated by practicing lawyers, bringing their day to day lived experience of handling mid-market litigation into pricing the risk and the funding investment decisions.

Christopher Nott, Founder and CEO of New North commented: “We are pleased to work with Pollen Street on this financing to launch New North Litigation Capital. The funding supports us to bridge a critical gap by funding claims that are often deemed too small by other players in the market. We are excited to work with the Pollen Street team as we create this new kind of litigation funding.”

Connor Marshall-Mckie, Investment Director at Pollen Street, commented:New North addresses an important gap in the litigation funding space, focusing on smaller mid-market commercial litigation. With the significant opportunity available and the deep experience of the leadership team from Capital Law we are excited to partner with the team to support their growth.”

About Pollen Street

Pollen Street is a fast-growing and high-performing private capital asset manager. Established in 2013, the firm has built deep capability across the real estate, financial and business services sectors aligned with mega-trends shaping the future of the industry. Pollen Street manages over €7bn AUM across private equity and credit strategies on behalf of investors including leading public and corporate pension funds, insurance companies, sovereign wealth funds, endowments and foundations, asset managers, banks, and family offices from around the world. Pollen Street has a team of over 95 professionals.