Law firms seeking litigation finance

Overview

Reasons law firms consider using litigation finance

Litigation funders extend financing to law firms who are engaged on a contingency basis on several cases. The funders pool the cases into a “portfolio” and provide financing to the law firm in exchange for a portion of proceeds that the law firm may receive from the portfolio of cases.

Litigation finance allows law firms to represent clients on a contingency basis without having to bear all of the risk of the contingency relationship. Litigation funders bear a portion of the risk by paying the law firm for a portion of the legal fees that are incurred in exchange for a portion of the legal fees that the law firm is entitled to receive in its contingency fee cases. Litigation finance arrangements enable law firms to receive some money upfront to de-risk their contingency fee arrangements, with the law firm maintaining an interest in the litigation that could result in substantial recoveries upon later settlements or judgments of the cases in the portfolio. Likewise, litigation finance arrangements provide an opportunity to law firms that want to offer contingency fee arrangements to their clients without bearing the full risk of those arrangements. Money from litigation finance may be used by the law firm for a variety of obligations, including to fund the prosecution of the cases in the portfolio, fund the representation of clients in other cases, or expand the law firms’ business.

Typically, litigation funding is extended to law firms on a non-recourse basis with litigation funders receiving a portion of proceeds that the law firm is entitled to from successful judgments or settlements. If the law firm is not successful in any of the portfolio of cases, the litigation funder does not receive any recovery.

We understand the litigation finance industry

Based on our experience, McDonald Hopkins understands that:

• There are key differences among litigation funders, including each litigation funder’s resources, preferred size of investments, focus on particular areas of the law for investments, structure, process, and timing;
• Litigation funders prefer cases to have certain characteristics; and
• Litigation finance presents a number of ethical and legal considerations, including: attorney-client relationship issues; confidentiality issues; fee splitting issues; disclosure requirements; old traditional laws concerning champerty, maintenance, and barratry; and usury laws.

We follow an extensive process to match clients with litigation funders

The Litigation Finance Group’s extensive process combines our experience and relationships in the industry and those included in our proprietary database, which leads to competitive financial and non-financial terms of litigation finance agreements. The Litigation Finance Group understands how to maximize the likelihood of securing litigation funding on the best terms available.

When assessing which litigation funder is best able to meet the needs of our clients, we focus on a number of factors. Some of these factors include:

• Amount of capital needed
• Timing of when capital is needed
• Expected timeline of the litigation and the capital needs
• The reason the client is seeking litigation funding
• The type of litigation for which funding is being sought
• The proposed funding structure that will benefit the client

We help our clients from the beginning to the end of the litigation finance process

The Litigation Finance Group helps our clients:

• Gain general knowledge about litigation finance
• Understand the extent to which their litigation is appropriate for litigation finance
• Develop a strategy to maximize the likelihood of consummating a litigation finance arrangement on the best possible economic and non-economic terms
• Prepare to meet with litigation funders
• Meet the litigation funders best situated to provide funding
• Negotiate with litigation funders
• Document litigation finance arrangements
• Communicate with litigation funders throughout the litigation or arbitration process