Burford Capital has spent more than a decade pitching its investments as a way for Big Law firms to bridge the gap with clients reluctant to pay the steep costs of pursuing legal claims in the U.S.
Investors are more frequently buying direct stakes in judgments or legal claims from the clients who hold them, rather than investing in a case at the outset by agreeing to pay lawyers’ fees and expenses in exchange for a share of any returns.
The trend was on display in Burford’s first-half results, which showed its investment of $145 million in a group of related cases recently paid out $423 million. That’s an example of how monetization deals can dwarf the amount of money at stake when funders’ investments are limited to the amount of lawyer fees in a case.
