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12 September 2025
Issue: 8130 / Categories: Legal News , Litigation funding
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NLJ this week: Litigation funding must serve justice, not failure

Geoff Dover, managing director at Heirloom Fair Legal, sets out a blueprint for ethical litigation funding in the wake of high-profile law firm collapses

Recent failures exposed structural and ethical flaws, with rigid repayment schedules, misaligned incentives, and excessive reporting requirements leaving firms and consumers exposed.

Dover argues for funding models that prioritise client outcomes, transparency, and shared success, rejecting commission-based structures and punitive terms. Law firms should question funders, ensure downside risk is shared, and avoid unsustainable growth. Ethical funding requires all stakeholders to operate collaboratively and benefit only when the client does. He calls for a fundamental shift in litigation finance, making funding a tool for access to justice rather than a source of risk.

Issue: 8130 / Categories: Legal News , Litigation funding
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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Clarke Willmott—Matthew Roach

Partner joins commercial property team in Taunton office

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Farrer & Co—Richard Lane

Londstanding London firm appoints new senior partner

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Bird & Bird—Sue McLean

Commercial team in London welcomes technology specialist as partner

NEWS
What safeguards apply when trust corporations are appointed as deputy by the Court of Protection? 
Disputing parties are expected to take part in alternative dispute resolution (ADR), where this is suitable for their case. At what point, however, does refusing to participate cross the threshold of ‘unreasonable’ and attract adverse costs consequences?
When it comes to free legal advice, demand massively outweighs supply. 'Millions of people are excluded from access to justice as they don’t have anywhere to turn for free advice—or don’t know that they can ask for help,' Bhavini Bhatt, development director at the Access to Justice Foundation, writes in this week's NLJ
When an ex-couple is deciding who gets what in the divorce or civil partnership dissolution, when is it appropriate for a third party to intervene? David Burrows, NLJ columnist and solicitor advocate, considers this thorny issue in this week’s NLJ
NLJ's latest Charities Appeals Supplement has been published in this week’s issue
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