William Marra of Validity Finance argues that attorney-client privilege should protect a company’s conversations with external litigation funders about the pursuit of a legal claim no less than its conversations with internal executives performing the same functions, as litigation funders perform functions similar to that of a CFO or an external consultant for claimholders that are not well-capitalized and cannot self-fund their litigations.

Michelle Eber of Validity Finance reports that Chief Judge Gilstrap of the Eastern District of Texas recently adopted a majority rule by denying a motion to compel production of litigation funding documents and notes that defendants that continue to demand discovery into litigation funding documents do so against a growing body of caselaw holding that such disclosure is improper.

Wendie Childress of Validity Finance reminds readers that recent developments, such as the case of Kove IO v. Amazon Web Services, indicate courts will continue to agree with plaintiffs that litigation funding is irrelevant to litigation itself, and not subject to discovery.

Ralph Sutton of Validity Finance grades his 2021 litigation finance predictions, which included predictions of more competition (hit) and many industry shake-outs and consolidations (miss); he also shares his 2022 predictions, which include a prediction that we will see new insurance products that will help investors in funding and funders themselves.