Chatting With Burford Capital CEO Bogart: Litigation Finance

Happy Friday!

This week I attended a media breakfast at Burford Capital’s office to chat with CEO Chris Bogart. The conversation covered a wide range of topics, from their $16 billion case against Argentina to their thoughts on the insurance industry’s opposition to the sector.

I wrote about how Burford can still sell off about 10% of its investment in the long-running Argentina lawsuit. The case goes back to 2012 when investors sued Argentina’s nationalized oil giant YPF. Burford put $16.6 million into funding the suits and later sold off more than a third of its interest to other investors for $236 million.

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Rules Committee

The International Legal Finance Association sent a comment to the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the US Courts regarding litigation funding. Last year, the Rules Committee put together a subcommittee to study whether a rule for litigation funding is necessary.

In a 238-page letter, ILFA wrote that current proposals to regulate funding are both “underinclusive and discriminatory.” It wrote that other types of litigation finance include pro-bono financing by nonprofits, bank loans, and contingency fees, yet those are not subject to regulation.

“Put simply, the proposals before the Committee would impose disclosure rules not on all forms of litigation finance, but on the one form most likely to level the playing field for less well-resourced litigants,” wrote in the letter.

The next hearing is on Oct. 24.

What I’m Reading

The Financial Times wrote about how lawyers and investors behind UK class actions say restrictions on litigation funding are causing a drop in the number of group cases. Only three collective proceeding cases have been brought before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, down from 11 in 2024.

Therium Capital Advisors announced the launch of its independent advisory services business led by Neil Purslow. Purslow previously led litigation funder Therium Capital Management, which earlier this year it had layoffs due to unspecified changes at the company. It later roped in US investment management firm Fortress Investment Group to manage its caseload.

Reuters had a story on elite US colleges involved in an antitrust lawsuit taking aim at a law firms use of litigation funding. The law firm said in a filing that the universities cited their use of funding to falsely accuse it of misleading the court about its financial exposure in the case.

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