Burford Director Andrew Cohen provides perspective for Managing IP on updates related to disclosure
- Case law & ethics
Burford Director Andrew Cohen provides perspective for Managing IP on updates in Chief Judge Colm Connolly's Court in Delaware and the U.S. Congress regarding calls for greater disclosure. Chief Judge Connolly's 2022 standing orders included requiring "legal finance disclosures for all cases assigned to him" and "certain companies to disclose all parties with stakes in them."
Cohen said the litigants in Burford's cases "are the real parties in interest," adding that "it won’t be a concern for someone like Connolly if these plaintiffs take financing from a third party that’s not controlling the litigation and that doesn’t have settlement authority."
“'We don’t want the bad actors in litigation finance either,'" he added.
Regarding legislation introduced in Congress, Cohen added that "fewer cases might be financed if the requirements in the pending Litigation Funding Transparency Act – sponsored by Representative Issa –applied to patent cases." He said "that plaintiffs might have access to certain amounts of finance at various stages of disputes and Defendants would know the pressure points of plaintiffs if they had access to this information, which wouldn’t be fair."
