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.
As Congress is on the verge of passing new laws intended to curb patent trolls, it will be interesting to see how these laws will affect the alternative litigation finance industry.
The importance of litigation funding to facilitate access to the civil justice system in Australia is now widely accepted. The article explains the funding process and the assistance that a funder can bring to funded proceedings, to the benefit of clients and lawyers alike.
Jim Batson will be co-leading a panel at the Legal Marketing Association’s P3 conference entitled “Litigation Financing: A Potential Game Changer for Risk-Sharing Engagements” on June 10, 2015. Register today!
Bentham's Ralph Sutton will present a program on Third Party Litigation Financing at the 9th Annual Judicial Symposium on Civil Justice Issues at George Mason University School of Law. Register for this event today!
Jim Batson will participate in Premier Cercle's IP Finance seminar "IP Litigation: The New Business of Litigation Finance" on May 14, 2015. Sign up today!
Jim Batson will participate at the upcoming program "The Globalization of Securities Litigation" sponsored by Baker & McKenzie LLP where he will discuss litigation funding and how parties can look to it as a resource when litigating securities matters.
The Delaware Superior Court's recent decision in Charge Injection Technologies v. E.I. DuPont De Nemours & Company falls in line with the Delaware Chancery Court's decision in Carlyle v. Moonmouth Company that the terms of a litigation finance agreement are protected from disclosure under the Work Product Doctrine.
Bentham's Jim Batson will discuss the use of litigation funding in intellectual property matters at a seminar with Renee Rothauge of Markowitz Herbold PC at the Litigation Counsel of America's 2015 Spring Conference and Celebration of Fellows on April 15-17.
On Monday April 6, 2015, Bentham IMF U.S. and Bentham Europe teamed up to give a joint lecture about third party litigation finance at the Florida International University School of Law.
Our Chief Marketing Manager, Marianne Talbot, possesses a unique combination of litigation and marketing experience that is key to growing Bentham's presence in the United States. Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Marianne!
The Thomson Reuters 2nd Annual West Coast Legal Executive Forum in San Francisco, California will discuss and address various issues legal executives are faced with in this post-recession era.
