Has litigation financing’s moment arrived? Christopher Bogart, the chief executive officer of Burford Group LLC, hopes so. In January, Burford announced that 2012 was its best year yet, as it took in $47 million in recoveries from 12 investments, each of which was either a single case or a portfolio of cases with a single firm or client. Since the company began in 2009, it has provided $373 million in financing for 46 investments. Another sign of success: Burford has to share the litigation financing field with a growing list of competitors that includes Juridica Investments Ltd., Parabellum Capital LLC, and BlackRobe Capital Partners LLC.
Bogart helped cofound Burford in 2009 after a career already highlighted by stints as a Cravath, Swaine & Moore litigation associate and as Time Warner Inc.’s general counsel. His interest in creative financing techniques goes back to those in-house days. In 2000 he structured one of the largest corporate contingency fees ever a $35 million deal with Cravath for its work on the AOL/Time Warner merger ["High Rollers," The American Lawyer, February 2000]. We talked with him about why he thought both law firms and corporate clients need litigation financing. (Bogart declined to discuss any of the specific cases that Burford has funded.) An edited version of our conversation follows.
