Burford Capital’s big income and profit figures could give managing partners room to maneuver.

In the big picture, bringing finance to an entire industry is the kind of untapped market that could justify the kinds of money investors have piled into litigation funding in recent months. Burford isn’t the only one with a war chest: A Financial Times story late last year estimated that something like £70 billion in capital was available for litigation finance. That article also notes that a tiny fraction—less than £1 billion—was actually put to use by U.K. funders in 2016.

In order to put all that good capital to good use, many in the industry think a change is needed. Change, it should be noted, is usually tricky in the legal world.

Some say funders will have to switch from financing one-off, big-money cases to backing a broader group of claims brought by a law firm or a corporate client. The industry calls this “portfolio financing,” and it is said to be cheaper for the ultimate client (in terms of the cut the funder gets) and provides more flexibility for how a law firm will use that money.

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