Litigation Funders – A new source of referrals to grow your business

Working with well-established litigation funders can have unexpected benefits for law firms. Among those benefits are opportunities to receive referrals for new business. In our experience, referral opportunities arise most commonly in the following situations:

Unrepresented Parties

Often a plaintiff/claimant contacts us to inquire about funding before they have secured counsel. In one recent case, the plaintiff required representation right away to help secure a Temporary Restraining Order. Within hours, we found her an attorney who was prepared to take the case for a reasonable fee and on short notice. Within a week of the plaintiff first contacting us, her new attorney obtained the TRO.

Blown Budgets

Many times we get matters where a plaintiff/claimant already has a lawyer, but the lawyer has grossly exceeded the litigation budget. It is not unusual for us to hear from claimants whose attorneys, even before obtaining any discovery, have already billed the entire amount of the attorney’s own budgets for handling the case through trial. We don’t interfere with the attorney-client relationship or offer an opinion or recommendation to another attorney without being expressly asked for it. However, upon request, we typically provide several suggestions based on our experience working with some of the top litigators in the country.

Law Firm Conflicts

We’ve worked with and built strong relationships with many law firms. As a result, firms that hold Bentham in high regard contact us to seek recommendations for counsel in cases they are unable to handle due to conflicts or another reason. One of our investment managers had such a matter recently and was able to provide recommendations to a plaintiff who was having a hard time finding a skilled attorney who was also open to alternative fee arrangements.

Due Diligence

As a funding company, we hire law firms to help us with due diligence during our investment assessment process in select cases. We refer cases to firms that have demonstrated knowledge and expertise while acting as our due diligence counsel.

At Bentham IMF, we regularly refer matters to our network of attorney contacts. We see giving referrals as a natural extension of our business, even where a case is not appropriate for funding. Litigants come to us looking for help in bringing their actions, and we help them however we can when their claims are compelling. Our relationships with excellent firms have allowed us to offer referrals in over 100 cases.

We pride ourselves on our strong network of contacts and are always looking to build more relationships. We encourage commercial litigation attorneys to reach out to us to talk about how we can work together.