Therium has once again been top ranked by Chambers and Partners in its 2024 litigation funding guide. The firm is ranked across all major jurisdictions including the UK, USA, Europe, Canada, Australia, Latin America and global guides as well as for international arbitration.

In addition, a number of Therium’s investment managers have been recognised as leading individuals, including Neil Purslow who is ranked Band 1 in the UK and Europe and Simon Dluzniak who is ranked Band 1 in Australia.

In an interview with Litigation Finance Journal, Neil Purslow talks about the Litigation Funding Agreements (Enforceability) Bill, which is being debated in the House of Lords Committee today and the Civil Justice Council’s (CJC) review of third party litigation funding.

Neil discusses how the review can help to make litigation funding more accessible for consumers and SMEs. He also talks about the importance of the rule of law in the UK in supporting the UK’s leading position as a global legal centre.

Joshua Card, Investment Manager at Therium, has been recognized in the 2024 Lexology Client Choice Awards, announced on November 29, 2023. This year’s winners were chosen from a pool of more than 2,000 individual client assessments where Josh was named alongside 11 winners in the third-party funding category across 10 jurisdictions worldwide. Josh was the only winner recognized in the US in the third-party funding category.

The Client Choice Awards recognize law firms and partners around the world that stand apart for the excellent client care and quality of their service that they provide. The focus is on those who add real value to clients’ business above and beyond the other players in the market.

Josh joined Therium in 2022 and helps lead its business in the United States. He is an experienced litigator with nearly a decade of experience counseling clients in pre-litigation disputes and risk assessment and litigating cases and arbitration matters regarding corporate governance issues, mergers and acquisitions, founder disputes, LLC and partnership matters, and other complex commercial and securities litigation matters.

It is the first group interchange claim to have settled in the UK.

LONDON, 20 December 2023: Over 700 businesses funded by Therium will receive compensation from Mastercard and Visa following the negotiation of a settlement in relation to interchange litigation.

The claimants were seeking damages for losses alleged to have been caused by infringements of domestic and European competition law in relation to the setting and implementation of multilateral interchange fees (MIFs) and a declaration as to the unenforceability of the MIFs.

The majority of the claimants are UK retailers, with some local authorities and universities in addition.

These claims have been fully funded by Therium since the claim was launched in May 2017, allowing companies to join the claim without needing to incur ongoing costs of the litigation. The group of claimants was represented by law firm Humphries Kerstetter.

Fred Bowman, Senior Investment Manager at Therium Capital Management said: “Therium is proud to have provided the funding that enabled the claimants to take legal action against such well-resourced defendants. This result demonstrates the important role of litigation finance and we are very happy to have supported the claimants in this long-running litigation.”

These claims form part of a broader group of interchange-related claims, which are currently being managed together in the Competition Appeal Tribunal in the UK in the Merchant Interchange Umbrella Proceedings. The first in a series of trials is set to commence in February 2024.

About Therium Capital Management

Therium is one of the world’s largest and most established global litigation finance and arbitration finance firms, having raised over $1 bn since 2009. With investment teams in the UK, USA, Australia and Germany. Therium has funded litigation and arbitration claims exceeding $40 billion including many of the largest and most high profile funded cases in the UK and internationally, including arbitrations under rules of the LCIA, ICC, UNCITRAL, LMAA, AAA, CIETAC, ICSID, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce and the Energy Charter Treaty. Therium has been Top Ranked by Chambers and Partners and Leaders League with investment officers across the UK, Europe, USA and Asia Pac recognised as leading individuals in litigation finance.

In 2019 to mark the firm’s tenth anniversary, Therium Access was launched as a not-for-profit venture to fund a wide range of access to justice projects and cases – supporting the most vulnerable in our society and helping to bridge the widening justice gap. With its own board composed of eminent figures from the legal community and a dedicated grants officer, Therium Access has made over £1.3 m in financial commitments over the last 18 months to over 26 different organisations. As the first initiative of its kind, Therium has been shortlisted for several awards for launching this ground-breaking initiative, including the FT Innovative Lawyer Awards 2019, The Lawyer Awards 2021 and the Lexis Nexis Awards 2020 and 2022.

As a founding member of the ALF, ILFA and the Litigation Funding Working Group, Therium is committed to shaping the future of legal finance and setting high standards for the industry.

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Media Contacts

Desiree Maghoo, Questor Consulting

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What are the Legal 500 rankings?

The Legal 500 assesses the strengths of law firms in over 150 jurisdictions.

Therium has once again, received top rankings from The Legal 500. We have maintained a Tier 1 UK ranking and Tier 2 ranking in the litigation funding guide for 2024.

Therium was praised for being “extremely responsive and creative in finding solutions” and that “their professionals are deeply knowledgeable and easy to work with”. UK Chief Investment Officer, Neil Purslow, was named as one of eight industry leaders and credited for being “very bright, experienced, and highly commercial”.

The Legal 500 also noted UK investment managers Ben Smyth, Fred Bowman, Chris Wilkins and John Byrne.

US investment managers Joshua Card and Corey Banks were quoted by The Legal 500 in their write up, highlighting secondary investment opportunities that demonstrate the maturity of legal finance as an asset class.

Charlie Temperley, London Investment Manager, has shared his insights with Flex Legal on best practice when working with litigation funders and some of the key considerations in the rigorous due diligence process when deciding whether to invest in a case.

The basic requirements for a case to be attractive to litigation funders have not changed. First and foremost, the legal and factual merits must be strong. Charlie answers how to get litigation funding, as well as discussing what else are funders looking for, and what ‘good’ looks like to an investment manager?

Advice includes:

• 1. Presenting the case realistically and commercially
• 2. Careful planning and continuous budgeting
• 3. Communicating clearly and openly
• 4. Proactively managing the litigation strategy
• 5. Focusing on the path to resolution

Who’s Who Legal (WWL) has recognised five investment managers across Therium’s global offices as internationally-renowned ‘Thought Leaders’ in the third-party litigation funding industry.

Therium CIO Neil Purslow, was amongst those recognised, alongside figures from our teams in England, Germany and Australia.

Therium Access, Therium’s not for profit arm, has been shortlisted at The Lawyer Awards 2023 in the Pro Bono Initiative of the Year category.

The Lawyer Awards celebrate the very best in the legal industry over the past year. In particular, the pro bono category recognises innovative thinking and measurable outcomes that generate significant change.

Therium Access has a meaningful and impactful grant programme that provides not-for-profit funding for organisations and cases that seek to improve access to justice. The claimants cannot afford to bring their cases on their own and do not qualify for other sources of funding such as Legal Aid, so without Therium Access, these important cases would not be brought.

Therium Chief Investment Officer Neil Purslow sat down with The Lawyer to discuss how funders are broadening their offering away from single case funding towards new areas of law firm financing.

Neil explains that funders’ interest in the legal sector is rising as a result of the emergence of new financing models that offer greater flexibility over pricing and structures for law firms to obtain litigation loans.

As law firms become less conservative and an increasing number of senior partners are breaking out of big law firms to set up on their own, the demand for law firm funding continues to grow.

Therium CIO Neil Purslow has been interviewed by Legal 500. He discusses the evolution of the funding industry, including the diversification of products available and the increase in investment interest from sophisticated institutional investors, particularly in the current economic climate as investors seek out uncorrelated returns to diversify their portfolio.

In addition, Neil touches on litigation funding as an ESG investment, as it helps to advance a number of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, including goal 16, which is about improving access to justice and holding bad actors to account.

Neil also shares his insights on what to expect in the UK funding market in the next three years, including the continued diversification of products in the market and the development of the secondary market.

Read the article here.