A New Approach to High-Stakes Disputes: An Interview with Gabriel Olearnik, CIO of Burgundy Capital Management

Gabriel Olearnik is the Chief Investment Officer and Head of Special Situations at Burgundy Capital Management, a newly founded UK-based litigation funder. Alongside his colleague Cezary Cienkowski, who serves as General Counsel, Gabriel launched Burgundy to provide innovative funding solutions for complex legal disputes. With a deep understanding of litigation finance and special situations, Gabriel is positioning Burgundy as a key player in the industry. In this interview, he shares the vision behind the firm, what sets it apart, and what the future holds for Burgundy Capital Management.

1. Gabriel, you recently founded Burgundy Capital with your colleague Cezary Cienkowski. What inspired you to start the firm, and what gap in the litigation funding market are you aiming to fill?

The founding of Burgundy Capital was driven by a shared vision to create something fundamentally different in the litigation funding space.

Cezary and I have worked together for years – we’ve both had stints in law firms and inhouse – and we saw a need to provide more than just capital to disputes, from the very beginning of a disagreement.

Nowadays, AI and investigations resources provide clients with the tools to address the legal, financial, and reputational issues. We wanted to build a firm that could address all of those elements in an integrated and strategic way.

Burgundy is not just a funder—we’re a force multiplier. We offer the high-level strategy and capabilities to help clients navigate and reshape the disputes they’re facing. That’s the gap we set out to fill.

I would add that it’s not just Cezary and myself. We’ve made additional hires this week, and we actually have a team that has worked together for years in the background. Burgundy extends beyond what you can see on our website and LinkedIn.

2. Litigation funding is a rapidly evolving field with a range of different models. Can you walk us through the key services that Burgundy Capital Management provides, and the types of cases or clients you focus on?

At Burgundy, we’ve built our services around the specific needs of clients facing high-stakes disputes.

First, we provide strategic advice that integrates the legal, financing and investigative elements. We have the privilege of working with really top class law firms, who have incredible experience and amazing people on board.

Second, we arrange litigation finance through a curated family office network. This funding is agile, discreet, and customized to fit the commercial realities of each case.

Third, we embed seasoned professionals directly into disputes to provide on-the-ground capabilities. It depends on the case, but sometimes that is enough to swing a decisive point. I would often do this back when I was doing international M&A – fly directly to the place where most of the work was happening. It sped things up significantly and fostered relationships of mutual trust.

3. The litigation funding space is competitive, with several established players. What differentiates Burgundy Capital Management from other litigation funders, and what unique value do you bring to clients?

It’s competitive to an extent, but also deeply collaborative. I’ve received a great deal of help from my previous firms and colleagues in the industry generally, which I’m grateful for. We plan to co-invest, so it’s not a zero sum game for us.

As to unique selling points - three things really.

Burgundy brings an intense degree of involvement to each engagement. We’re not passive funders—we’re strategic partners. Our team has looked at over 430 disputes valued at more than $110 billion, and we’ve often helped to structure the dispute strategy from the first breach. We’re not reading into cases, we’ve been there from the very beginning.

I call this the “attention premium”. It’s a huge advantage. We’ve disrupted IPO strategies, uncovered hidden surveillance, legally secured internal banking records, and influenced leadership changes at the highest levels. These are not standard litigation outcomes.

Secondly, our team has worked together for years, we trust each other and have been through many crises. We have each other’s backs. That translates into great results.

Thirdly, I hope we’ve cracked the digital side of things. Our LinkedIn views are up to just under 2.5 million for this year. Why does that matter? It helps us get our story out, and keep attention on the matters our clients are interested in. I have no interest in vanity metrics, just good content.

4. As Head of Special Situations, you deal with complex and high-stakes cases. Can you share some insights into the kinds of special situations Burgundy is interested in funding and how you approach these unique opportunities?

Special situations are a fancy way of saying something financially unusual, with an outsize good or bad outcome. An IPO is a special situation. Restructuring is a special situation. Litigation is a special situation – it’s classified as a class D in Benjamin Graham’s book, Security Analysis, which appeared as late back as 1934. (Sorry, my inner nerd couldn’t resist that reference.)

We’re interested in disputes, which will monetize in 2-3 years, and are worth $50-300 million. They can be larger than that, but the initial range is where most of the interesting cases live. The disputes can be anywhere in the world, provided that timing and return profile is right.

5. As a newly established firm, what are your goals for Burgundy over the next few years? Are there any specific markets, case types, or strategic developments you are particularly focused on?

Our ambition is to become the first call for clients facing disputes that could define their business future.

From a macro perspective, AI is going to reshape legal costs, in a market which is going to grow by 4.5% per year – but the litigation funding side should grow twice as fast. So the pie is big and getting bigger. It’s a fantastic time to be in this space.

We also think we’ve cracked the defence side of litigation funding, and our first pilot was successful. But that’s another story. Watch this space.