An experienced and agile team today launched Winward Limited (“Winward”), a litigation finance platform focused on being a funder with a lawyer’s mindset. Winward (www.winward.uk) will be run by Jeremy Marshall, its Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director, with committed capital from Rocade Capital.
Winward will initially concentrate on funding commercial litigation within Europe and common law jurisdictions although it will also look to capitalise on opportunities that are presented from other jurisdictions that have a mature litigation funding environment. Winward intends to build a balanced portfolio of investments and will aim to work with a select group of law firms and professionals. The initial investment focus is a mixture of litigation and arbitration matters in the fields of antitrust, arbitration, contract, group action, insolvency and tort.
Winward’s team is efficient, experienced and is determined to provide a robust service and come to swift and decisive funding decisions, while providing enhanced transparency throughout. Its advisory committee is chaired by Stephen Auld KC, a senior silk from leading chambers One Essex Court in London, and it is comprised of a number of seasoned professionals, all of whom have significant experience of either funding cases or having cases being funded. Wayne Attrill, Arndt Eversberg and Kees Jan Kuilwijk have decades of litigation funding knowledge of, respectively, the Australian, German and Dutch markets. From the UK, Philip Young and Sean Upson, who were senior partners at market-leading litigation practices (Cooke, Young & Keidan and Stewarts Law) will provide essential risk management and litigation skills from the perspective of practising lawyers.
Winward is funded by Rocade Capital, a leading litigation finance company backed by one of the world’s leading investment managers. Winward will benefit from a market leading insurance facility provided by co-insurers Arcadian Risk Capital and Litica Ltd.
Brian Roth, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Rocade LLC, said “We are excited to be entering the market with the leadership of a litigation finance veteran in Jeremy Marshall. This launch is an opportunity for us to contribute to moving our industry forward, as Winward will offer market leading solutions with a streamlined process”.
Shoosmiths LLP and Walkers advised Winward Limited. Nixon Peabody LLP served as legal advisor to Rocade LLC. Winward’s insurance broker is Howden Broking Group Limited.
Rocade Capital
Rocade LLC is a specialty finance company focused on litigation finance with a long-term investment approach, in partnership with one of the world’s leading investment managers. Since Rocade’s predecessor was founded in 2014, the platform has funded approximately $1.1 billion of investments in the litigation finance space, primarily consisting of loans to leading plaintiff law firms within mass tort and other complex litigation. Rocade Capital’s flexibility, industry expertise, track record and long-term focus position it to be a leader in law firm lending. Rocade has an experienced team of professionals, located in the Washington, DC area and Houston, TX, which includes both finance industry veterans as well as litigation experts. For more information, please visit www.rocadecapital.com.
Jeremy Marshall
Jeremy was formerly the Chief Investment Officer for Bentham Europe (now Innsworth Advisors), the joint venture between IMF Bentham Limited (now Omni Bridgeway) and subsidiary entities of funds managed by Elliott Management Corporation. He was also a Senior Investment Manager with Omni Bridgeway. He is an experienced litigation finance professional, having worked in litigation finance for well over a decade and, prior to that, having been a partner of a London law firm which litigated a number of funded cases. He has been involved in the funding of a wide variety of cases, including the securities case against Tesco PLC in England (which settled) and a similar case against Volkswagen AG (in Germany). He is a regular contributor and commentator in the litigation finance space.
