AALS Section on Litigation Panel on the Growth of Third-Party Litigation Finance: Opportunities and Challenges

At the online 2021 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Law Schools, the AALS Section on Litigation program will be the "The Growth of Third-Party Litigation Finance: Opportunities and Challenges":

Over the last decade, third-party litigation finance in the United States has quickly grown into a $10 billion industry.  Third-party litigation finance has been praised for increasing access to justice and reducing variations in litigant resources and risk tolerance, but concerns have been raised about champerty, less meritorious litigation, and effects on lawyer independence and client control.  This program will explore third-party litigation finance with attention to contested issues such as fee splitting, claim assignment, aggregate litigation, and attorneyclient privilege.  The program will explore proposals such as disclosing third-party litigation finance in litigation and permitting non-lawyer ownership or investment in law firms.

The panel will take place from 2:45 p.m. to 4:00 p.m EST on Tuesday, January 5, 2021, and I will serve as moderator for the nationally leading panel of speakers:

• John Beisner, Partner and Leader, Mass, Torts, Insurance and Consumer Litigation Group, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP;
• Jonathan Molot, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center, and Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer, Burford Capital;
• Victoria Shannon Sahani, Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Professor of Law, Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law;
• Anthony Sebok, Professor of Law and Co-Director, Jacob Burns Center for Ethics in the Practice or Law, Yeshiva University Cardozo School of Law; and
• Maya Steinitz, Professor and Bouma Family Fellow in Law, University of Iowa College of Law.