U.S. Litigation Funder Enters The Australian Market

In the latest sign of the explosive growth of the litigation funding industry, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that U.S.-based litigation funder Burford Capital is entering the Australian market.

Burford’s CEO said the company’s decision to fund a securities lawsuit against financial services company AMP is an “important foot in the door” to the Australian market. He added that the company may have “a few hundred cases” already lined up “as a way of defraying some of those start-up expenses.”

Last month, the ABA Journal called third party litigation funding a “multi-billion-dollar global industry” that comes with “legal and ethical concerns,” including the potential for funders to “dictat[e] legal strategy or pressur[e] attorneys over settlement amounts.”