Survey shows ‘explosive’ use of litigation financing
Litigation finance is seeing explosive growth and continuing evolution according to a report from global law-focused finance firm Burford Capital.
In its 2016 Litigation Finance Survey, 28 per cent of private practice lawyers said their firm had used litigation finance directly. That’s a fourfold increase from a similar survey in 2013. The majority of lawyers expect litigation financing to continue to grow; 75 per cent of outside counsel and 61 per cent of clients believe that to be true.
“What we’ve found is that the growth in corporate finance for law not only reflects the enormous need for outside capital,” said Burford’s CEO Christopher Bogart. “It also coincides with a broad array of changes in the traditional business model for law, which can help law firms thrive and provide high quality counsel in a new environment.”
The survey also revealed that 81 per cent of private practice lawyers feel that a lack of capital to invest in the firm is a major challenge, exacerbated by the capital structure of the partnership based system.
Firms add 9 new partners to Asia-Pacific headcount
A wave of new partner promotions has been announced by international law firms, adding a total of 9 partners to Asia-Pacific law firm offices.
Ashurst has promoted 12 lawyers to its global partnership including: Ian Bolster (dispute resolution) and Rebecca Dixon (resources & utilities) in Sydney; Mark Bradley (dispute resolution) in Melbourne; Stuart James (resources & utilities) in Perth; and James Comber (dispute resolution) in Hong Kong.
Bird & Bird has promoted 9 to partner globally including IP lawyer David Allison in Hong Kong/Beijing. The firm has also promoted 15 counsel Beijing. The firm has also promoted 15 to counsel including Jolie Giouw, Cassandra Ow, and Ping-Ping Oh in Singapore. Sally Barber becomes special counsel in Sydney.
At Simmons & Simmons, Eva Chan makes partner in the financial markets practice in Hong Kong. Her promotion is among 7 globally for the firm.
Finally, at Watson Farley & Williams, 8 partners have been promoted including Shawn Er and Chien Herr Lee in the asset finance group in Singapore.
International firm doubles in size in Singapore
International law firm RPC’s joint legal venture with Singapore’s Premier Law is now live, doubling RPC’s size in the city state. RPC Premier Law will offer services across multiple practices including dispute resolution, international arbitration, M&A, insurance, marine and insolvency.
The JLV is live now but will be based in the heart of Singapore’s financial district when it moves to new offices in Marina Bay Financial Centre on May 16th.
