International relations

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Omni Bridgeway’s Wieger Wielinga gives an overview of the Enforcement of Arbitration Awards against Sovereign entities in Practice

The last decade has shown a sharp increase in investment treaty-based and other international arbitration against sovereign nations, parastatals and other semi-sovereign entities. In the slipstream came an increase in the number of cases in which such sovereigns resisted complying with judgments and arbitration awards, including awards from the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Winning an arbitration award against a sovereign does not necessarily mean that recovery will be successful.

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Growing the Litigation Funding Market

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Simon Dluzniak of Bentham IMF discusses Europe’s litigation funding market and compares it with the more mature Australian market the funder has come from

The third-party litigation funding market in this jurisdiction is, relative to Australia, still in its infancy. Hence it is incumbent upon the various stakeholders within the industry to continue to create awareness of the benefits of litigation funding in assisting and shaping its growth. After what appears to have been a fairly positive start, third-party funding (TPF) appears to have suffered a backlash of sorts as a result of a spate of so-called ‘setbacks’, most notably the loss of high-profile funded cases (for example, the Excalibur case) and the collapse of a well-known funder (Argentum).

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Pick your battles

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 THIRD-PARTY FUNDING 

London’s litigation funders are turning their attention to international arbitration. Can this deliver their breakthrough?

No sooner had Excalibur begun to drift from memory than another setback befell the litigation funding industry: the decision in August of the RSM v Saint Lucia majority to award security for costs on account of an unnamed funder’s involvement in the case, the first time such an order had been issued in the context of investment arbitration.

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Covering Every Contingency – Portfolio Funding of Litigation

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Therium’s Neil Purslow examines the different funding options available

Since the introduction of damages-based agreements (DBAs) on 1 April 2013, use of contingency fee arrangements (CFAs) in England and Wales has been very limited, due largely no doubt to the fact that partial DBAs are not permitted and also the flaws in the enabling regulations have created uncertainty as to the efficacy of this new form of agreement. Nevertheless, commercial litigators have shown significant interest in taking litigation risk on their cases in return for a contingency fee upside. While this has, however, been difficult to achieve to date, Therium has now launched a portfolio funding offering which, through using a variation of a typical funding structure, allows law firms to offer contingency fee-based services to their litigation clients,
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Neutral territory

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Lalive’s Marc Henzelin and Sandrine Giroud examine the key facts on the enforcement of foreign judgments in Switzerland

Ranked among the top five financial centres in the world and top of the Global Innovation Index 2014, with postcard landscapes and a tradition of discretion and stability, Switzerland remains a top destination for companies and wealthy individuals alike to bring their business and wealth. It is therefore unsurprising that enforcement of foreign judgments against assets held in Switzerland is an issue that comes up regularly in the day-to-day practice of international litigators.

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What’s in store for London’s Commercial Court?

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

White & Case’s head of litigation, John Reynolds, looks at what impact the development of other countries’ specialist commercial courts will have on the future of London as a centre for international dispute resolution

Despite relentless competition, most notably from New York, the choice of English governing law dominates the international contracts market. So says a recent article from the July/August issue of Legal Business with the benefit of opinion from partners at a number of large international firms (including White & Case’s own David Goldberg).

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Conditional Fees – who wins?

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Ian Gray, Litigation head at Eversheds, looks back on the firm’s experience of alternative fee arrangements in commercial disputes, explains the lessons learned, and looks ahead to the future of dispute funding

One-off conditional fees

I remember being told around 1998, just prior to the introduction of conditional fees, that the general counsel of one large client was fed up that litigation lawyers did not have any ‘skin in the game’ and that, as a result, they ran cases too far, without a care for the costs. In the years that followed, we did a series of small and large conditional-fee cases. In truth, we had some tough experiences along the way, at times losing more than just some skin.

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Financial mis-selling in Ireland and the importance of knowing the consumer

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

John O’Riordan of Dillon Eustace explains what advisers should bear in mind

There has been a significant increase in recent years in the number of claims relating to the alleged mis-selling of financial products to consumers in Ireland. These claims have been varied in their nature but essentially they have a common theme, the sale of an unsuitable financial product to a customer, on the basis of incorrect and/or misleading advice.

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A better Judiciary to realise Turkey’s potential

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Mehmet Gün, senior partner at Gün + Partners, examines the difficulties facing the Turkish judiciary and how essential a first-class justice system is to Turkey’s progress

In the 1980s, Turkey undertook significant liberalisation of its national economy. Since then, liberalisation has increasingly become a pivotal part of the international economy. Between the 1980s and 2000, Turkey learnt some very important lessons in the form of economic crises and was saved by International Monetary Fund programmes.

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Jackson – Light at the end of the tunnel?

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 MARKET VIEW – LITIGATION 

Enyo Law’s Peter Fitzpatrick, Annabel Thomas and Lauren Gash analyse how the Jackson reforms are bedding down a year after they came into force

Over a year has passed since the Jackson reforms came into force in April 2013 under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act. Like the Woolf reforms before them, the aim of the reforms was to cut the cost of civil litigation and streamline cases, reducing the use of court time and encouraging early settlement.

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