Month: December 2015

The Maple Tree is Growing: Commercial Litigation Funding in Canada

Marla Decker

The litigation finance industry in the U.S. is relatively new compared to the more mature markets that exist in Australia, the U.K. and other parts of Europe. Continuing the growth trend in North America is now Canada, which has begun to adopt litigation finance on its own terms.

Like its Commonwealth sister Australia, litigation finance in Canada found its initial toehold in class action funding, in response to the ever-increasing costs of litigation and the risks of a loser-pays system. Over the last few years, Canadian courts have approved litigation funding agreements in the class litigation context despite long-standing adherence in Canada to the champerty and maintenance doctrines. In fact, the province of Quebec took the unique step of establishing a public fund that is used to finance class lawsuits as discussed by University of Montreal Professor Catherine Piché at last month’s symposium on litigation finance at NYU. Ontario has a similar fund.

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How to Raise Capital in a Difficult Situation

Lee Drucker

Developing a new product or business in the energy space is rife with complexity. Whether it be creating a new alternative energy device or innovative software platform, energy entrepreneurs must identify a valuable opportunity, assemble a dedicated and talented team, and potentially invest years and abundant resources in R&D – all of which may occur before navigating government regulations, finding manufacturing partners or even knowing whether you have a viable product for the market.

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Litigation Finance; a Financial Perspective

Lee Drucker

On November 20th, the Center on Civil Justice at NYU School of Law hosted an in-depth conference dedicated to the subject of litigation finance, Litigation Funding: The Basics and Beyond. It was a great opportunity to interact with many of the people that are devoting their time and energy to thinking about and building this new ecosystem of law and finance. David Lat (among others) covered the event, and you can read some of his takeaways here.

Personally, I was able to glean from the perspective of other professionals in the industry; some perspectives were new and interesting, and other perspectives I disagreed with, but in either case it was it was worthwhile to learn what perspectives others were bringing to bear. One of the big take-aways for me was that each funder seems to be taking a slightly different approach to the industry. Next week, I will write an article to distill these differences.

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