Legalist Trying to Stay a ‘Niche’ With $415M: Litigation Finance

Happy Friday! This week I interviewed Eva Shang and David Jang from Legalist about their new fund.

Legalist closed on its fourth and largest fund dedicated to litigation finance for $415 million. The fund will continue to focus on the low to mid-range cases that Legalist specializes in. It’s a bright spot in a difficult market for capital.

The announcement comes as the funder celebrates 10 years in the litigation finance space. Shang co-founded Legalist in 2016 after dropping out of Harvard and obtaining a $100,000 grant from Peter Thiel’s foundation.

“When we launched in litigation finance, we were very much a niche underdog, and I like to think that we have preserved that status over the years, even though we’ve grown and our strategy has grown as well,” she said.

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Funder Moves

Gian Kull is now the CEO of Legal Asset Servicing, a financial infrastructure platform for legal assets. Kull previously worked at litigation funder Omni Bridgeway, where he led the UK office.

Legal Asset Servicing provides funders, law firms, insurers and institutional capital providers with an operational platform to monitor, manage and report on legal asset portfolios.

“Legal finance has scaled significantly over the past decade, but the infrastructure managing these portfolios hasn’t kept up,” said Kull in an announcement to Bloomberg Law. “We’re at a point where institutional capital is flowing into an asset class that is still largely administered through spreadsheets and fragmented tools. LAS is the infrastructure layer this market now needs, and the timing couldn’t be more relevant.”

What I’m Reading

• The University of Iowa published a study examining the impact of litigation finance on lawsuits in the Corporate and Business Law Journal. Researchers looked at 63 lawsuits funded by third-party financiers and found funded cases are less likely to be dismissed and last longer.
• MMA Law Firm moved to protect owner and attorney John Zachary Moseley from a litigation funder suit during the firm’s bankruptcy, James Nani reports. Moseley has exclusive institutional knowledge required to resolve MMA’s legal fights and finalize a recovery plan but his forced participation in personal litigation by lender Equal Access Justice Fund LP could jeopardize the estate, the firm said in a lawsuit.
• Omni Bridgeway released its investment portfolio report as of March 31 and highlighted an increased investment pipeline, continued positive completion metrics, and ongoing strength, scale and diversification of its global legal assets portfolio. The funder contracted 27 new investments fiscal year-to-date, representing A$391.8 million in new commitments.

Patent Judge Albright Leaves Heavy Backlog

Judge Alan Albright is leaving a lasting imprint on patent litigation in Texas—and one of the longest case backlogs of any federal judge—when he departs the bench in August, Ryan Autullo reports.

The Western District of Texas had 129 civil cases pending for three years or longer as of last September, 70% of which belonged to Albright. His docket also accounted for 63% of the more than 700 civil motions that had gone unresolved for at least six months. In a court report, he cited his docket size or the complexity of a case as cause for the delays.

Albright’s list of undecided cases highlights his growing disinterest toward non-patent cases: Last December, he referred all criminal matters and many civil matters to a magistrate judge for recommendations that he would review.

Before leaving, Albright said he’ll help Chris Wolfe, who was recently confirmed by the Senate to the Waco bench, with as many patent trials as he can. Judges Robert Pitman and David Ezra, and incoming judge Andrew Davis, will help tackle his remaining workload after he leaves.

Albright says he’ll return to practicing law as an attorney. It’s a rare move, since he’s just three years short of senior status—and because of his stature in the world of patent litigation.

Business & Practice

Big Law Client Bills Pile Up, Stymying Firms’ Revenue Gains

The largest law firms are waiting for clients to pay legal bills for big-ticket tech transactions before they can maximize revenue gains, a survey released Wednesday shows.

Race for Rare Earth Minerals Propels Niche Big Law Practices

Big Law mining practices are straining to keep up with the surge of US critical minerals projects, as lawyers with specialized skills for the work are in short supply.

DLA Piper Partners Approve Plan to Dissolve Swiss Verein

DLA Piper partners voted to ditch their verein structure, crossing the biggest hurdle in the law firm’s plan to push a common strategy across the entire global operation.

Paul Weiss’ Shanmugam Exit Shows Rivals Pouncing for DC Talent

Supreme Court lawyer Kannon Shanmugam’s move to Davis Polk & Wardwell spotlights how Big Law firms are building appellate practices as contentious battles under President Donald Trump land at the high court.

Commentary & Opinion

Here’s Why More Corporate Counsel Are Turning to Arbitration

In times of uncertainty, arbitration provides tools that litigation either lacks or can’t guarantee—greater control over the process, flexibility to adapt when conditions shift, and broader confidentiality protections to keep disputes out of the spotlight, write Crowell & Moring’s Randa Adra, Ashley Riveira, and Edward Norman.

State AGs Took Live Nation Case to Finish Line for Music Lovers

When I joined the DOJ in 2025 as the deputy antitrust enforcer, I was committed to bringing Live Nation to trial, Notre Dame professor Roger Alford writes. But it was state AGs who “delivered a stunning blow” to the music giant.

How Do You Characterize AI’s Contributions in Drug Discovery?

As AI use becomes more frequent in the invention of new drugs, it’s important to determine how it affects who’s credited in patentable inventions, say Womble Bond Dickinson’s Ben Bourke, Daniel Kremer, and Susan Krumplitsch.

The SEC Drew New Crypto Lines. What Issuers Need to Consider Now

The SEC and CFTC clarification of how to apply federal securities laws to crypto assets and transactions reflects a move toward a more structured regulatory framework, write Olshan Frome Wolosky’s Kenneth Silverman and John Corrado.