By Jonathan Stroud Recently, I asked a few funders whether, given rising patent verdicts, the new PTAB winter, lower interest rates, and growing patent volume, they saw any macro trend – really anything at all – suggesting they should pull back from investing in patent litigation or counselling prudence. They thought about it, searched themselves, and answered, simply: “nope.” There are, of course, real headwinds and perceived risks in litigation ...
By Patrick Rode of WINDORFER RODE This article follows the 23rd WLF Litigation Summit panel on “Artificial Intelligence Disputes: Liability, Regulation & Ethics in Litigation” | Dubai, January 20, 2026 The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence will generate litigation – it’s whether companies can prove they deployed AI responsibly when disputes inevitably arise. This was the central theme that emerged from a wide-ranging discussion with legal practitioners representing ...
By Nick Rowles-Davies Introduction In the modern American legal landscape, the growth of mass tort litigation and third-party litigation finance (TPLF) has converged to reshape the pursuit of civil justice. Once considered a niche mechanism, TPLF has emerged as a multi-billion dollar industry and nowhere is its influence more pronounced, or more contentious, than in the arena of U.S. mass torts. This article reviews some recent scholarly analyses, including ...
By Dr Can Eken and Peilin Chen Investment arbitration is expensive, and third-party funding now forms part of ISDS practice. Funding, however, comes at a price. When a funded claimant succeeds, it will usually owe its funder a success-based funding fee, which can be substantial. In commercial arbitration, tribunals have already permitted such fees to be recovered from the losing party, most notably inEssar v Norscot and Tenke v ...
By Nick Rowles-Davies In August 2025, Anthropic did something unprecedented. The AI company agreed to pay $1.5 billion, with preliminary court approval following in September, to settle copyright claims from authors whose books trained its Claude chatbot. At roughly $3,000 per book for an estimated 500,000 works, the settlement represents the first major resolution in the escalating legal battle over whether AI companies can use copyrighted material freely for training ...
By Gabriel Olearnik Let’s start with an old Irish story – that of a high king wounded in battle. Nuada of the Tuatha Dé Danann loses his hand in war; and in a world where wholeness meant sovereignty, the wound was not merely personal. The ruler had to be pristine, so this loss meant he could no longer rule. The solution is strange, surgical, and mythic: a silver hand is ...
By Nick Rowles-Davies How blockchain technology is democratising one of the most lucrative, and exclusive, corners of the investment world. A Market Poised for Transformation The intersection of blockchain technology and alternative investments continues to expand into previously inaccessible corners of finance. Among the most promising frontiers is litigation finance, a multi-billion dollar asset class that has historically been the exclusive preserve of hedge funds, institutional investors, and the ultra-wealthy ...
By Stuart Hills The holiday season has passed once more, presents have been opened, mulled wine has been drunk, Olde Lang Syne has been sung and New Year promises made – and by now many of these same promises broken. So it seems only fitting to stick with one of those January traditions to attempt to predict what the New Year holds, in particular for the UK legal finance industry ...