In an article for City A.M. that addresses the gender gap in law and Burford’s initiative to help close it, Aviva Will highlights the need for economic incentives: “In-house initiatives and sentiment-altering campaigns are a great start to shifting attitudes, but to see real change, we need to talk in the language of business: Money.” Ms. Will goes on to describe how Burford’s $50 million pool of capital for women-led litigation will help close the gender gap in law:
“With capital from The Equity Project, women-owned firms and litigators can pitch to clients, knowing that they can offer attractive alternative fee arrangements. A female lawyer can show a client that it is possible to fund their litigation without adding pressure to their balance sheet. She can use the litigation financing to convince her firm’s contingency fee committee to move forward with a case that she might otherwise not advance… Putting financing in place to give female lawyers extra leverage won’t solve every problem, but it provides firms—and women—with a good starting point.”