In Conversation with Richard Wise, Addleshaw Goddard
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IN CONVERSATION SERIES NO.XV APRIL 2019 IN CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD WISE, ADDLESHAW GODDARD Addleshaw Goddard has been at the cutting-edge of litigation finance for over a decade, quick to recognise the benefits it can offer to both the firm and its clients. This led to the launch in 2008 of Control, an integrated solution bringing together the expertise, experience and flexibility of AG’s team to provide bespoke finance packages specific to the needs of its clients and their case. Managing Director, Andrew Jones met with Partner, Richard Wise to find out more about how litigation finance is helping AG and its clients to share risk, manage returns and inform strategy. Andrew Jones (AJ): You first launched Control in 2008. trainee in 2007 was a group action involving a CFA and How did the market react to it at that time? one of my first matters as an NQ was funded, so at that point I had naively assumed it was relatively normal! Richard Wise (RW): The idea of packaging alternative fee structures and insurance solutions to proactively I think the growth of the litigation finance market, offer to clients in the manner we did with Control and the fact that in that context Control is still was regarded as very innovative and certainly as recognised ten years later, is a good indicator of the a departure for a practice focussed on commercial impression it made and how forward thinking it was. disputes. Whilst CFAs had been available for a number 2019 APRIL AJ: What were the most popular litigation finance | of years, they had been largely confined to personal arrangements during the ten years that the original injury cases and third-party funding was in its relative Control product was in place? NO.XV infancy – in fact The Association of Litigation Funders | wasn’t formed until three years later. RW: As a firm we have acted on more than 165 CFAs since 2008, including some of our biggest and most I was only a year qualified when Control launched and high-profile matters. Typically, those have been didn’t fully appreciate quite how different it was until ‘no win, low fee’ CFAs in tandem with ATE insurance. we were all trained on it and saw the reaction from clients: the first dispute I had worked on as a final seat IN CONVERSATION SERIES SERIES CONVERSATION IN | 1 IN CONVERSATION SERIES NO.XV In the period pre-2013 – before the Jackson Over the last few years many of our We have worked hard to reflect all of this Reforms coming into force – success fees corporate clients – a number of whom in the ten-year update, as well as ensuring and ATE premiums could be recovered from have been comfortable with CFAs for a long we have the relationships with the funders the other party so they were incredibly time – have shown an increasing interest and insurance brokers to back it up. attractive to clients for tactical reasons in third-party funding in particular as they AJ: What has the new Control product as well as financially. After the Jackson look for ways to manage the challenges put done to facilitate better client reforms there was certainly a relative dip to them from their finance teams. As well conversations and drive work-flow? in the number of CFAs for a few years, but as the chance to limit costs or take them off we have seen a renewed appetite for them balance sheet, the importance of litigation RW: Control has always been about in the last 18 months. That may have been teams being seen to add value or work as having commercial rather than legalistic spurred by the ever-increasing number of a profit centre means they are increasingly conversations with clients and listening funded matters and also conversations with open to exploring litigation finance options. to what works for their business. clients around DBAs raising interest levels. Competition follow-on damages claims are Refreshing it was about trying to keep just one obvious example of this in action. 2019 APRIL AJ: How did client appetite for funding those conversations up to date with the | changing litigation finance environment. solutions develop over that period and The same clients also know that they We use the term litigation finance NO.XV how did that influence the design of the cannot afford to ignore litigation finance deliberately in Control, because it is | new initiative? and need to understand it because litigation a much broader topic than third party they are or will be facing involves it. RW funding and encompasses other forms : As well as the abolition of the Our recent work in successfully challenging of finance, insurance arrangements recoverability of success fees and ATE the ‘Arkin cap’ at the security for costs and alternative billing structures, insurance premiums, the biggest changes stage is a good example of clients expecting all of which impact on claimant and have been the increasing maturity of, and us to be able to use our understanding defendant litigation strategy. capital available in, the third-party funding of funding arrangements and ATE market and the introduction of DBAs. insurance in defending cases. SERIES CONVERSATION IN | 2 IN CONVERSATION SERIES NO.XV AS ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN INVOLVED IN LITIGATION OR ARBITRATION KNOWS, IT RARELY RUNS ENTIRELY SMOOTHLY. THERE IS A TEMPTATION TO FOCUS ON PRICING WHEN LOOKING AT FUNDING OPTIONS, BUT IT IS VITALLY IMPORTANT TO HAVE STRONG RELATIONSHIPS WITH FUNDERS WHO UNDERSTAND THE PROCESS AND TRUST IN THE CASE AND TEAM RUNNING IT. RICHARD WISE Our experience is that existing and new clients are out of their own recoveries or where funding has really interested in understanding what is available enabled claims that might have been stifled because in the market and how it can be deployed as a claimant of impecuniosity or even monetary exchange controls. to turn litigation from a cost into a revenue generator, AJ: What can we, as a global provider of litigation as well as how it can be challenged on the defendant finance, do to assist in making Control even side in light of the developing law. more successful? I mentioned competition and antitrust cases earlier, RW: As anyone who has been involved in litigation but as well as follow on damages and stand-alone or arbitration knows, it rarely runs entirely smoothly. abuse of dominance claims in that area, we are also There is a temptation to focus on pricing when looking seeing Control driving work in large tort claims, at funding options, but it is vitally important to have including shareholder, data breach and product liability strong relationships with funders who understand actions. It probably doesn’t need saying that arbitration the process and trust in the case and team running it. –and particularly investor state – is a key area for third APRIL 2019 APRIL | party funding as well. Funders generally have a mix of people with different experiences from private practice, in-house or in AJ: How have you been able to utilise funding NO.XV solutions to deliver the best results for your clients? business, and a desire to innovate to stay ahead of | the competition. As a result, those with a relationship RW: The temptation is to think about some of the focus, like Vannin, can add real value to our thinking larger cases we have worked on, or the slightly nerve- on market trends and opportunities, as well as on wracking experience of our first DBA. However, some specific cases. Given the direct relationships funders of the more interesting solutions have been where we also have with many corporates they are also very have been able to put together portfolios of CFAs for well placed to promote the wider litigation finance institutional clients that effectively become self-funding market and of course to act as work referrers. IN CONVERSATION SERIES SERIES CONVERSATION IN | 3 IN CONVERSATION SERIES NO.XV BIOGRAPHIES Richard Wise Andrew Jones Partner Managing Director ADDLESHAW GODDARD LLP VANNIN CAPITAL +44 (0)20 7160 3255 +44 20 7099 5181 [email protected] [email protected] Richard is a Partner in Addleshaw Goddard’s Litigation Andrew Jones works with law firms and claimants on Group specialising in insurance and international how third-party funding can be pursued and utilised commercial arbitration. across a broad range of high-value commercial litigation disputes. Based in London, his role focuses on identifying Richard’s insurance practice focuses on the representation and providing a full appraisal of disputes that Vannin of major national and multinational policyholders across will consider for funding, as well as monitoring disputes a range of sectors. He has particular experience of that Vannin has committed to fund. Bermuda Form insurance disputes and of advising in respect of complex international coverage matters. With over 12 years of private practice experience at two of the world’s leading international law firms, Andrew’s Richard’s international arbitration experience includes areas of expertise include general commercial litigation, advising clients in relation to ad hoc proceedings, as corporate fraud, global investigations (both regulatory well as those brought before the LCIA, ICC, SIAC, LMAA and internal/non-contentious), advisory and tax disputes. and ICSID. Richard also spent two years working in our He has advised a broad range of corporate clients and Singapore office and is an active member of the firm’s financial institutions, in addition to a number of leading India Business Group, having been seconded to two leading professional services firms. Andrew’s work has frequently Indian arbitration practices in Mumbai and New Delhi.