Australian lawyers are the most likely to say legal finance is growing and gaining importance
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Most lawyers in Australia think that legal finance is an essential new business tool for law firms, a new study has revealed.
Burford Capital’s 2018 Litigation Finance Survey said that 76% of Australian respondents had this opinion on legal finance. They were also the most likely, at 83%, to say that legal finance is a growing and increasingly important area in legal business, compared to 78% in the UK and 73% in the US.
Despite the high opinion about legal finance, the survey also found that just 41% of Australian respondents say that they are very familiar with the tool, which is lower than the 53% and 51% in the US and the UK that said the same.
Overall, use of legal finance has had a stellar rise since 2012. From under 10% that year, use of the tool rose to 70% among respondents this year, which is a more than 600% increase.
In Australia, 28% of respondents said that their firm’s use of legal finance increased, while 70% said that it stayed the same. That’s lower than the 58% of overall respondents that said their firm’s use of legal finance increased in the last two years.
Among respondents in private practice, 67% said their firms increased their use of legal finance over the last two years, while 32% said the level remained the same. Among in-house team members, 45% said use increased, while 53% said use remained the same.
The survey gathered responses from 495 participants in the US, UK, and Australia, with 318 working in law firms and 177 working in in-house teams.
Law firm respondents, 26% of whom were managing partners or partners, came from firms with a mean size of 258 lawyers. In-house respondents, 70% of whom were general counsel, chief legal officers, or deputy or assistant general counsel, came from companies with a mean annual revenue of US$1.28bn.
