Law and Business of Litigation Finance
Written by a funder; the closest thing to an industry overview.
Summary
The reference has not verified this book in detail; the summary states only what the title, author and subject establish.
Steven Friel runs a litigation funding business and edited this as a practitioner reference on third-party litigation finance, the practice in which an outside investor pays a claimant's legal costs in exchange for a share of any recovery.
The subject matter covers the commercial structure of funding agreements, the regulatory and ethical position across jurisdictions including England and Wales, the United States, Australia and the emerging European markets, the treatment of privilege and disclosure when a funder is involved, the doctrines of maintenance and champerty and their retreat, security for costs, after-the-event insurance, and the application of funding to arbitration, insolvency claims and group actions.
The reference has not verified this volume's contents in detail. This entry reflects its established scope and the editor's position in the industry. Readers should note that the field moves quickly and that the English position in particular changed materially after the Supreme Court's PACCAR decision in 2023, which fell after publication.
Key takeaways 6
- Litigation funding converts a legal claim into an asset that can be valued and financed separately from the claimant's other resources.
- Funder returns are typically structured as a multiple of capital deployed or a percentage of recovery, whichever is greater.
- Champerty and maintenance doctrines that once prohibited third-party funding have been narrowed or abolished across most common law jurisdictions.
- Funder involvement raises questions about privilege and about who controls settlement decisions, and funding agreements must address both explicitly.
- Security for costs applications against funded claimants are the principal defensive tool available to respondents.
- The asset class attracts institutional capital because returns are uncorrelated with financial markets, though they are highly correlated with each other through legal precedent.
Who should read it
Lawyers and investors entering litigation finance who need a jurisdictional and structural reference, updated for developments after 2020.
Where it sits in the reference 2
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