As the litigation funding industry continues to mature, there has been a lot of discussion about how funders can build relationships with in-house counsel and legal teams within companies of all sizes. With funders stressing the benefits of legal departments taking advantage of third-party funding, a new report provides insights into the current state of the relationship between funders and in-house legal teams in the UK.
An LFJ Conversation with Michael Kelley, Partner, Parker Poe
As the litigation funding industry continues to mature, there has been a lot of discussion about how funders can build relationships with in-house counsel and legal teams within companies of all sizes. With funders stressing the benefits of legal departments taking advantage of third-party funding, a new report provides insights into the current state of the relationship between funders and in-house legal teams in the UK.
Crafty Counsel and Exton Advisors have released their white paper on ‘Dispute management and litigation funding – an in-house perspective’, which provides an overview of the challenges facing legal departments, as well as the opportunities available to improve their litigation management strategies. Most notably, the report found that “less than 7% of legal teams have used litigation funding”, demonstrating both a lack of awareness with the availability and differing use cases for outside funding.
However, the report also highlighted that those legal departments who had experience working with litigation funders came away with a positive impression, as 86% of those who had accessed third-party financing expressed interest in using it again. In one particularly interesting insight, 64% of legal teams noted a desire for law firms to provide additional support and education for in-house counsel around options for litigation funding and alternative fee structures.
