In an article detailing the strong, continued growth of legal finance, The Economist reports: “Last year Burford Capital, an industry heavyweight, put $1.3bn into cases—more than triple the amount it deployed in 2016.” The article also covers the evolution of legal finance generally:
“Fortune 500 companies and New York’s elite law firms increasingly tap outside capital when pursuing multi-million-dollar suits… Such outside funding does not just enable plaintiffs to pursue potentially lucrative cases. It also allows law firms to hedge risk. Some clients, worried about the misaligned incentives caused by law firms’ sky-high hourly rates, insist on partial or full contingency-payment schemes. Outside funding lets firms recoup some revenue even if they do not win a case.”