How litigation funding became a viable career alternative for all lawyers

The battle for talent within the litigation funding market is growing. The addition of a top-flight partner or barrister to the funders’ ranks not only bolsters the in-house expertise, but it also underlines confidence in the litigation funding market.

When third-party funding arrived in the UK in 2009, it generally tended to attract senior lawyers after lengthy service at top flight firms.

A decade on, the funding sector has worked hard to prove its sustainability and we are seeing the trickle of lawyers moving from private practice into funding turn into a steady stream. Litigation funding is now seen as an alternative career path for lawyers on the way up the career ladder.

In New York earlier this year, for instance, Bentham IMF made headlines when it hired IP partner Sarah Tsou from Kirkland & Ellis, while bolstering its arbitration credentials through the appointment of partner Dana MacGrath from Sidley Austin.

Such hires serve to not only build the funders’ expertise, but also shows long-term commitment to the sector.

As members of the Investment Committee, lawyers are on hand to assess funding requests as they arrive. They decide which dispute is a viable investment and then devise a strategy for managing it, with a view to ensuring that the claim achieves the desired result – whether that is settlement or a court judgment.

The growing numbers of lawyers joining litigation finance firms underlines how quickly the sector has matured in the last decade. Yet, in many ways it remains a new industry yet to fully engage with technology and automation, akin to buying holiday insurance before the arrival of GoCompare and CompareTheMarket in the UK.

That is why we developed the world’s first litigation funding marketplace, which streamlines the funding request process to make it easier for lawyers and their clients to work with funders.

FINLEGAL.IO will give lawyers access to multiple funders simultaneously using a central platform. Put simply you make one application and send it to market with all the supporting case information. After that you can sit back and wait for the responses. Funders and their Investment Committees can access the platform to evaluate and manage opportunities.

We want to hear from lawyers and funders about what else you would like to see on this platform. Register for our BETA programme to join with others with early access to this ground-breaking platform prior to launch.