There’s a lot of chatter about litigation funding these days. Today, the American Lawyer published an article, "Law Firms Flock to Litigation Funders.” True, litigation funding is abundant and often provides needed solutions for the illiquid or impecunious client.

Reforming the legal regime regarding the use of damages-based agreements (DBAs) in the UK is a vital, and long overdue, development. It’s a step that needs to be taken if the settled policy of allowing lawyers to fund cases for their clients in return for a share of the recovery is ever going to become an important tool for financing litigation in this jurisdiction.

On the afternoon of 27 September 2019, leading law firm representatives, barristers, and academics from the UK and the US met at the Orangery at Beaverbrook Hotel in Surrey discuss and debate the role damages-based agreements (DBAs) should play in the English legal system.

There is a growing realisation among law firms that they are missing a trick: litigation funders are making attractive returns from assets that are the law firms’ domain, and law firms are handing them those returns. In many respects, this is an example of the world coming full circle in a relatively short period of time.