Three years ago, Marla Decker was a Senior Associate at Cleary Gottlieb. She left that enviable position to undertake the risk of becoming the first full-time employee at Lake Whillans, an upstart US-based litigation funder. Today, Lake Whillans is one of the premier funding entities in the nation, having recently raised $125MM and being named one of the top four funders by Chambers and Partners.
Decker discussed her transition into the brave new world of litigation funding, and what other attorneys can expect should they opt to make a similar move.
According to Above the Law, Decker explains that when it came to her Big Law career, the thing she misses most is the adrenaline rush of having just one moment to get it right when in court or deposition. That said, she finds litigation finance to be a more intellectually challenging venture on a consistent basis, due mainly to the scope and breadth of cases she covers as a funder.
Decker explains that even though she had a broad practice at Cleary Gottlieb, litigation funding provides so much more diversity. From pharmaceutical-licensing disputes to claims over supply-chain logistics, Decker’s days evaluating funding opportunities are never the same.
Decker credits her operational skill set from her litigation days with helping her in her new career. She understands the pacing of a case, where parties gain and lose leverage, and which issues tend to be of greater significance. Those are all valuable skills to own when evaluating cases for funding. Decker also credits her client management skills which allow her to liaise with claim holders in meaningful ways. In a sense, the claim holders are to funders what clients are to lawyers: people who need a solution to their problem, and require a certain level of communication and trust.
When discussing Lake Whillans’ diligence process, Decker outlines a principle phone call to assess whether the case is the right fit, followed by a internal call with the entire Lake Whillans team to discuss the case in greater depth (pursuant to a signed NDA, of course), which is then followed by the issuance of a term sheet. The funder wants to settle on terms first, so they don’t conduct unnecessary diligence in case the parties cannot come to an agreement on terms. After that it’s your standard DD, with some added discussion over expected timeframe and enforceability of an award thrown in.
Decker noted that she performed her own diligence on the funding industry, but has grown surprised by the rapid shifts and evolution of the broader industry during her three-year tenure with Lake Whillans. The transition to portfolio financing, added-interest from large corporations thanks to budgetary pressure and increased awareness of the product, the rise in demand for funding in international arbitration matters, and the ever-increasing volume leads have all been pleasant surprised for Decker.
In terms of advice for litigators looking to make the same move she did, Decker advises doing your homework on which funders are out there hiring, expanding and raising money. Understand the focal points of each funder (for example, Lake Whillans doesn’t handle patent law, which many funders tend to focus on primarily). It helps to maintain a broad practice where you are exposed to as many different types of cases as possible. And of course, if you’d pursued or acquired funding in the past, that is also a bonus.
