Litigation funders: the key to unlocking growth?

• Litigation funding is evolving from the financing of litigation into the funding of law firms more generally.

Litigation finance as a concept is not new—indeed, regulation of it first arose in medieval England. But its use as a tool to support those involved in commercial litigation and arbitration is much more recent, having entered the mainstream in many of the world’s major legal centres in the past two decades. While litigation funding has traditionally been offered to support large single cases, the market has seen an evolution into other areas, such as a portfolio of cases, more use of funding by corporates, and realising immediate value from litigation or arbitration which may still have some time to run.

However, the most recent development is perhaps the most revolutionary—litigation financiers becoming funders to law firms or other legal businesses, and for purposes not necessarily linked to litigation. With litigation funders’ knowledge of the legal market and a