On April 4, 2016, Canadian mining company Crystallex International Corp. won a $1.38B arbitration award for Venezuela’s unlawful expropriation of its Las Cristinas gold mine. Crystallex’s claim was advanced with the support of a third-party litigation funder.
Jim Batson, Senior Investment Manager in Bentham's New York office, gave a guest lecture at Florida State University, College of Law on Monday, April 4, 2016 about his involvement and experience in the seminal e-discovery case of Zubulake v. UBS Warburg.
Matt Harrison, Investment Manager and Legal Counsel in Bentham's San Francisco office, will participate in a panel discussion about litigation funding at the Northern District of California Judicial Conference on April 9, 2016.
Delaware Superior Court President Judge Jan R. Jurden decided yesterday in Charge Injection Technologies, Inc. v. EI du Pont de Nemours that a litigation funder's involvement in a case did NOT amount to improper meddling.
Bentham IMF in Canada is a subsidiary of Bentham IMF Limited, a public company traded on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX: IMF). We are the oldest and most experienced commercial litigation funder in the world.
A recent decision on a summary judgment motion out of the Western District of Pennsylvania rejected usury and champerty defenses to an alternative litigation finance agreement. This latest decision indicates the judiciary is becoming more receptive to the use of alternative litigation funding.
Los Angeles Investment Manager Allison Chock will participate in a panel discussion about litigation funding at the ABA Environmental, Mass Torts & Products Liability Joint CLE conference in Park City, Utah on Friday, January 22, 2016. Register today!
Allison Chock will participate in a panel discussion on litigation finance on January 19, 2016 at The Four Seasons in San Francisco along with a distinguished panel consisting of members of the judiciary and representatives from Burford Capital and Lake Whillans. Register today!
Taking stock in the last days of 2015, we note that 2015 has been outstanding. Bentham continued its expansion of offices in the US. We grew our product base. We invested in a record number of cases. And, we saw a substantial uptick in investment inquiries. We expect this exciting trajectory to continue in 2016. Happy New Year to all!
During the recent seminar, sponsored by Bentham IMF in conjunction with the Harvard Law School Association and hosted by Southwestern Law School, Los Angeles Investment Manager David Gallagher responds to the question posed by moderator David Houston – is commercial litigation finance legal?
Proving that legal education does not stop at graduation, Harvard Law School alumni, their colleagues and friends gathered on November 19, 2015 at Southwestern Law School to hear a distinguished panel discuss commercial litigation funding.
After launching Bentham’s San Francisco office in October, Matt Harrison describes litigation funding in the Bay Area as “going gang-busters.” Matt, with the help of his recent hire from Latham & Watkins, Priya Pai, are busy evaluating large commercial and law firm portfolio cases and have no regrets over saying goodbye to the billable hour. They sat down with The Recorder to discuss the transition from billing on cases to financing them.
On October 20th, with the lights of the Bay Bridge twinkling in the background, Bentham IMF welcomed over 150 Bay Area attorneys, in-house counsel, and executives to a cocktail reception to celebrate the official opening of Bentham’s San Francisco office. The festivities were hosted by Matt Harrison, head of the newly launched San Francisco office and former Latham & Watkins partner, and Priya Pai, legal counsel and former Latham litigation associate. Bentham IMF’s senior Australian management team was also on hand for the celebration and was impressed by the enthusiasm and interest in litigation funding among Bay Area legal professionals.
In our Meet the Team series, the spotlight is on one of our newest additions - Matt Harrison. Matt leads Bentham's proliferation into the Bay Area and brings with him extensive litigation expertise. Read on to discover some fun facts about Bentham's newest litigation financier.
In Hamilton Capital VII, LLC v. Khorrami, LLP, New York Supreme Court Justice Shirley Werner Kornreich disagreed with Defendant’s argument that the litigation finance agreement at issue constituted impermissible fee-sharing with a non-lawyer.
More importantly, Justice Kornreich recognized that “providing law firms access to investment capital where the investors are effectively betting on the success of the firm promotes the sound public policy of making justice accessible to all, regardless of wealth.”
The Committee On The Judiciary of the United States Senate has announced an inquiry into third party litigation financing in the US. Read here for Bentham IMF’s statement about this inquiry:
Ralph Sutton was both the lead-off and wrap-up player at the 9th Annual Judicial Symposium in Civil Justice Issues given by George Mason University School of Law. Presenting to a group of sixty Federal and State judges, Ralph kicked off the session on litigation funding with an introduction to commercial litigation financing. After two law professors and a partner at an esteemed national law firm presented their views on aspects of commercial litigation funding, Ralph made sure that any questions on the validity of commercial litigation's benefits to access to justice were dismissed by his talk on "Debunking Myths Surrounding Third Party Financing of US Litigation".
More recently, Nazi-looted art has gained focus in the mainstream due to various movies as well as in the German Cornelius Gurlitt case. However, it is not as simple as finding the rightful heirs of the art. In many cases, several issues arise. Read Chris Michaels' article, "Statute of Limitations in Looted-Art Cases," in The Legal Intelligencer for an in-depth analysis.
