Marla Decker
The advancement of women lawyers has been a discussion in the legal profession for decades, and one that I’ve followed closely. As a young associate, I was encouraged by the efforts underway at various firms to attract and promote women into senior positions. While women were admittedly underrepresented in leadership roles at law firms, the tide seemed about to shift.
Read MoreLee Drucker
If you have been looking for a niche that will help you attract new business from inside and outside your firm, one of the most promising areas is litigation funding. A wide range of lawyers in your firm need to be able to navigate litigation funding: transactional lawyers need to advise clients on the finance aspects of major litigation; litigators must advise clients who are considering potential claims of the various financing options available to them; and law firm leaders routinely evaluate the security and profitability of the firm’s fee arrangements with clients. Expertise in litigation funding has become a core competence. Being an expert in litigation funding used to be a competitive advantage. http://www.newellis.com/PDFs/2017/NewEllis-030617.pdf. But with the increased availability and acceptance of litigation funding, lawyers’ having experience with litigation funding– and funders—is a necessity and any firm lacking in this area will be at a distinct disadvantage.
Read MoreGarrett Ordower
The closely watched case of Gbarabe v. Chevron – a class action against the oil giant based on an oil rig explosion off the coast of Nigeria – has been portrayed as a cautionary tale for the world of litigation finance. The defense attorneys’ dogged pursuit of the details of plaintiff’s outside funding, the story goes, succeeded, and aided in the attack on the adequacy of plaintiff’s counsel. The defense did successfully defeat class certification, but litigation funding ultimately played little or no role in the case’s demise.
Read MoreLee Drucker
Litigation funding is not just for plaintiffs. We, at Lake Whillans, provide defense-side financing using a unique transaction structure. While our approach does not work for all defense-side litigation or arbitration, in the right circumstances, our structure provides for a straight forward transaction that allows a defendant to optimally protect its business.
Read MoreMarla Decker
In Part I of this series, I shared observations from my vantage point as a litigation funder on what works when pitching to potential clients. In this Part II, I will share my views on how to best present your client’s case to a financier. It may seem that to obtain financing, you would present a funder with the best aspects of your client’s case, including the facts and law on their side. At a minimum, this is of course necessary, but there is more. Here are a few tips.
Read MoreMarla Decker
As a member of the litigation finance community, I’ve had the opportunity to work with a varied cross-section of attorneys and one truth has emerged: business development is a pressure every practitioner is facing. Perhaps your New Year’s Resolution this year will include improving the efficacy of your business development efforts. If so, this series is for you. In Part I of this series, I’ll share my observations about what I’ve seen work in winning business. In Part II, I’ll share my thoughts on the related skill of how to best present your client’s case to a funder.
Read MoreLee Drucker
In mature industries, there is usually a set of rules outlining best practices for individuals and organizations. In newly developing industries, however, best practices are less clear, and once established spread more slowly. In order to promote the development of best practices in litigation finance, we recently identified key aspects of a funding arrangement that we believe will lead to the best results for a claimholder. Companies considering a litigation financing offer should consider the following principles and their importance:
Read MoreLee Drucker
This post was contributed by Bill Patterson; he was the general counsel of Business Logic where he oversaw a “bet-the-company” litigation. He now manages complex litigation at Swanson, Martin & Bell. You can contact Bill at bpatterson@smbtrials.com.
Litigation finance is here to stay. Having worked as outside counsel, in-house and now as outside counsel again, I can confidently make that statement. There are three fundamental ways litigation finance changes your job, whether you’re inside or out.
Read MoreLee Drucker
In order to help entrepreneurs in the life sciences sector, we are creating an annual ranking of the top law firms that help these entrepreneurs protect their interests throughout the lifecycle of their business.
Read MoreLee 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.
Read MoreThe best way for companies and their counsel to determine if litigation finance is an attractive option is to discuss it with us.
Lee Drucker drucker@lakewhillans.com
