Commercial litigation finance is a growing industry. But when it comes to the people who laid its foundations and those who are propelling the business today, it is an exceedingly small and interconnected world. Many key figures trace their roots to elite law firms or Wall Street institutions. (Perhaps reflecting the diversity challenges in those clubby industries, litigation finance’s upper rungs are also overwhelmingly white and male.)
Among the industry’s established leaders, many fell into the business almost by accident, through chance meetings or conversations about clients who couldn’t pay to fight a good case. Newcomers are tweaking the business model with web-based crowdfunding and by using artificial intelligence as an adjunct to traditional case-vetting tools.
