Bench Walk provides Gateley with £50 million litigation funding facility

Bench Walk Advisors has been revealed as the firm providing UK legal and professional services group, Gateley with a £50 million funding facility. The agreement will see Gateley become one of only two listed law firms with access to a funding facility.

Richard Healey, partner and head of Gateley’s dispute resolution group, said: “Given that litigation can be lengthy and uncertain, it was important that we select the right funding partner to make this a commercial success. We mounted a careful exercise and assessed a number of funders based on set criteria. Bench Walk more than impressed and we now look forward to working together to meet the needs of our growing client base.

Adrian Chopin, co-founder and managing director at Bench Walk, commented: “This agreement will enable Gateley to provide its clients with a simple one-stop-shop solution for pursing claims at no cost. Our arrangement with Gateley gives them discretion as to where to deploy capital and allows risk to be spread across Gateley’s book of disputes bringing the cost of the facility down. That cost reduction, in turn, will allow Gateley to support clients’ cases even where traditional funding arrangements might otherwise be too expensive. With our funding, Gateley can strengthen its client relationships, pursue more successful litigation and arbitration, assure smooth cash flow throughout the course of disputes, and free up capital to grow the business.”

The news coincides with the appointment of Rebecca Hume as a partner to strengthen Gateley’s London dispute resolution team. Rebecca joins from Kobre & Kim in the Cayman Islands and has over 30 years’ experience of cross border asset recovery cases involving fraud and asset tracing as well as international judgment enforcement.

Commenting on her appointment, Rebecca said: “I’m excited to be joining such a forward-thinking business like Gateley, which very much has an advantage over others in the legal and professional services sector because of the culture it has created amongst its people. I’m looking forward to building on the success of the team by developing talent and expanding the contentious insolvency side of the Group.

“To have a new litigation funding facility in place is incredible. It will certainly propel Gateley by attracting more work from those who can’t monetise a claim.”