Burford Capital, a litigation funding business, is back in the news, with success. Here is an AmLaw Daily article by Andrew Longstreth regarding the firm’s apparent 40% share of a $ 110 million verdict. Here is Burford’s latest press release with general data on it’s overall portfolio results since it went public last fall on the AIM market. The company’s shares trade as BUR.
Note that the successes of the client and Burford are in part a function of being embraced by Wall Street law firms in general, and by a lawyer who often represents the insurance industry. Thus, a major New York law firm, Simpson Thacher, was the law firm that introduced its client to Burford. Second, the AmLaw article attributes the introduction to one of Simpson Thacher ‘s senior partners, Barry Ostrager. Mr. Ostrager is very well known as a lead lawyer for the insurance industry. According to the website at the firm:
"Mr. Ostrager has been prominently involved in supervising the firm’s major insurance and reinsurance practices in both its New York and Los Angeles offices. He has been lead trial counsel in more than a dozen major insurance coverage cases, including Shell Oil Co. v. Winterthur Swiss Insurance Company, a multi-billion dollar environmental insurance coverage dispute in which the jury returned a verdict for the insurers after a sixteen-month trial."
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