Legal finance helps companies transform litigation strategy with monetization
- Monetization
- Antitrust & competition
When most companies think about litigation, they think about expense and uncertainty. What often goes overlooked is that litigation can also represent an asset — one with significant, but illiquid, value. For companies facing long timelines before recovery, litigation monetization offers a way to bring that value forward into the present.
The challenge: Value locked in a pending claim
A Fortune 100 company faced exactly this challenge with an antitrust opt-out claim in the protein industry. The case was strong and potentially worth hundreds of millions, but it was still at an early stage and years from resolution. The company didn’t need help funding legal fees; instead, it wanted to unlock cash from its claim to support business priorities today.
The solution: Monetization to turn illiquid asset into working capital
Burford provided a solution by advancing $75 million in cash to the company at year-end, structured on a non-recourse basis: If the case were lost, the company would keep the $75 million with no obligation to repay. That meant immediate liquidity without new debt or financial risk, and the company was free to use the funds however it chose—whether for growth, operations, or other litigation.
As the litigation advanced and the company gained greater confidence in its portfolio, the arrangement expanded. By adding other pending matters as collateral, the company ultimately increased the monetization to more than $140 million.
The impact: Liquidity and strategic flexibility
The result was clear: The company unlocked substantial value years ahead of resolution, transferred downside risk to Burford, and preserved the upside of its claims. The monetization worked seamlessly alongside contingency fee arrangements, showing how litigation finance can complement existing legal and financial strategies. More broadly, the case demonstrates how monetization can accelerate access to value from pending claims, provide liquidity without adding risk and evolve to meet changing corporate needs.
