ILFA’s 2024 New York Conference Highlighted the Vast Growth of the Industry and the Value it Provides

In April 2024, the International Legal Finance Association (ILFA) held its annual conference in New York. The conference brings legal and financial industry professionals to discuss the innovations and pressing issues facing the commercial legal finance industry.

The conference highlighted legal finance’s benefits to law firms and businesses seeking to mitigate risk. Smaller businesses, particularly, increasingly rely on the industry for affordable access to the justice system, a critical service that has helped drive the sector’s rapid growth.

Keynote speaker Kenneth Feinberg, an expert in alternative dispute resolution and mediation, called investors’ litigation funding a “necessary good,” often providing innocent claimants their only opportunity to achieve justice.

Along with Feinberg’s insights on the value of mediation and legal finance, members of ILFA and subject matter experts gathered for six critical panel discussions. They explored the state of the industry, optimizing legal value, judges’ perspectives on the practice, innovation driving growth in big law, corporate intellectual property monetization, and the use of insurance with legal finance.

Of note, former Southern District of Florida Judge Ursula Ungaro, US District Judge Robert M. Dow, and the former US Magistrate Judge Sam Sheldon spoke on the nuances of mandatory disclosure for funded cases and explained why it is often harmful. Judge Dow stated, “The concern I had when we were looking at this at the rules committee was public disclosure of too much really gets into litigation strategy,” he said. “That’s really not fair to give one side the other side’s litigation strategy unless it’s mutual.” Judge Ungaro explained that, for the most part, she does not understand why funding would need to be on the public docket. She said, “There are all kinds of things that go on in the world that have some influence on lawyers, clients, and judges’ cases, and to think that disclosure is going to solve that problem is nonsense.”

Stay tuned for more information on panelists’ discussions and highlights on ILFA’s Insights page.