IMF Bentham Limited Annual Report 2019

At the State level, most reform proposals relate to consumer funding regulation, a distinctly different area of litigation finance than the commercial funding area in which we operate. Nevertheless, we monitor all proposals for their potential to tangentially impact commercial litigation funding. There are no current proposals in our key markets of New York, California and Texas which present a material concern to our business model. Competition In the US, the market continues to grow. Although the combined major and minor players could number around 100, we compete with a few dedicated, global funders for investment mandates. We witness funders come and go due to unsustainable investment choices and insufficient resources to compete. Chairman’s and Managing Director’s Report continued USA Our US operations commenced in 2011 and, since then, have expanded rapidly and continue to grow and strengthen in an increasingly competitive and sophisticated market. During this time we have helped to educate the market and shape the evolution of the dispute resolution finance industry from its infancy to what it is today. We are one of the only funders offering a multi-office regional approach, with Investment Managers on the ground in our main US jurisdictions, including New York, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. We continue to build strong relationships across the legal industry and are now a preferred funder for many leading law firms. Within the US, we have active relationships with 95% of the ‘AmLaw 100’ firms and in the past two years, 71% of those firms have approached or met with our US team to discuss funding opportunities. Regulatory environment Commercial litigation funding in the US has progressed beyond market formation and is now widely recognised and accepted. Regulatory reform at the federal level has now moved to focus on the mandatory disclosure of funding, as opposed to the legality of funding. There is proposed federal legislation seeking mandatory disclosure of funding agreements in class actions and multi-district litigation (MDLs) and we have joined industry peers in advocating against this legislation as well as proposed changes to the Federal Civil Rules concerning mandatory disclosure. In our view, funded claimants deserve protection from abusive and expensive discovery and privilege must continue to extend to third-party funders. These proposals for mandatory disclosure have been led by the US Chamber of Commerce, whose constituency comprises some of the most powerful corporate entities in the US and the world. The Chamber continues to lobby government and, although the Federal Rules Committee is considering the proposal, any developments are likely to be some time away from being concluded. “What I found with Bentham is that they really were interested to get to know the case, to get to know the parties... The people with whom we dealt had practiced this kind of law, so they understood how it works. It was not like trying to explain to a bank what the loan was for. They understood perfectly well.” Howard Brownstein THE BROWNSTEIN CORPORATION PRESIDENT, TRUSTEE AND INDEPENDENT CORPORATE BOARD MEMBER 30