In light of current economic unpredictability exacerbating longstanding demands on businesses to enhance value and manage expenses, legal departments are not exempt from this trend. The focus is primarily on commercial disputes, with senior in-house attorneys increasingly pressured to optimize the value of claims, judgments, and unenforced awards, whilst keeping costs to a minimum.
According to independent research commissioned by the legal finance firm Burford in 2023, key trends and areas of discussion within the realm of litigation finance include the impact of economic pressure on clients, escalating issues surrounding unenforced awards, and the rising importance of cost and risk-sharing mechanisms. Their conclusions were based on extensive interviews with 350 top in-house litigators.
Economic pressures are dictating the way clients manage their costs and their relationships with partners. Often, unenforced awards present additional problems for these businesses. One strategy that seems to be gaining ground in response to these pressures is a move towards cost-sharing arrangements and provisions for risk sharing.
For a comprehensive overview of this subject, legal departments and corporate lawyers would do well to examine the full report published by Burford. This research can provide valuable insights into the latest trends and strategies being adopted by in-house lawyers to tackle the issues mentioned above.