A recent Law 360 article by Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow, “Avoiding The Ethical Pitfalls of Crowdfunded Legal Fees”, reports on the ethics of crowdfunding for legal fees.  This article was posted with permission.  The article reads:

Within two days of being charged with manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, Daniel Penny had crowdfunded over $1.5 million to cover his legal fees.  Penny was charged with killing Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator, on a New York City subway after placing him a fatal chokehold.  The case was widely covered and highly politicized.

Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, called for charges against Penny and justice for Neely's family.  Republicans, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., voiced their support for Penny.

Crowdfunding legal services is a relatively new phenomenon.  It's most often used to fund litigation involving individuals — as opposed to corporate entities — that implicates human rights issues, the environment and judicial review.

In one widely publicized case, two Yemeni refugees with valid immigrant visas were intercepted at Dulles International Airport, handcuffed and sent out of the country — the result of former President Donald Trump's temporary seven-country travel ban, which had been signed just a few hours earlier while the brothers were en route.  The crowdfunding campaign raised $36,600 in its first week.

While crowdfunding legal services provides a way for many to access lawyers when representation would otherwise be unaffordable, it also comes with a bevy of ethics risks.  This article will examine the key ethical rules governing crowd-sourced legal funds and the steps lawyers can take to mitigate their risk.

The Daniel Penny Case

In May, the Manhattan District Attorney's office charged Penny, a 24-year-old U.S. Marines veteran, with second-degree manslaughter after he killed Neely on a New York City subway earlier that month.  For more than three minutes, Penny placed Neely in a fatal chokehold leading to his death.  Penny claimed self-defense, stating that Neely was threatening passengers on the train.  It was later learned that Neely had been suffering from a mental health crisis and was experiencing homelessness at the time he was killed.  Penny was released on $100,000 bond.  On June 28, he appeared in court in Manhattan to plead not guilty.

The law firm representing Penny — Raiser & Kenniff PC — arranged for a fundraiser on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo to cover Penny's legal fees.  As of Sept. 29, the fundraiser has collected nearly $3 million.  How can Penny's legal team use those crowd-sourced funds? What restrictions are imposed by the ethics rules?

This article will examine the critical steps to ensure compliance with the American Bar Association's Model Rules of Professional Conduct, which are largely adopted in most jurisdictions.

Confidentiality Runs to the Client, Not the Funders

Perhaps the most fundamental feature of the lawyer-client relationship is the protection of client confidences.  Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.6 prohibits a lawyer from revealing "information relating to the representation of a client unless the client gives informed consent, the disclosure is impliedly authorized in order to carry out the representation or the disclosure is permitted [under certain enumerated circumstances]."

A lawyer must make reasonable efforts to prevent inadvertent or unauthorized access to the information, a standard that is highly fact-dependent and considers the sensitivity of the information and the extent to which additional safeguards would enhance security versus hinder the representation.  Lawyers who organize fundraisers, manage crowdfunded donations and apply them toward legal fees must ensure that they neither represent nor imply that they will provide information about the representation to donors in exchange for donations.

It is best to obtain informed consent for any information that will be disclosed to donors and to steer clear of "providing specific information about how the funds will be used to effectuate the legal strategy," as articulated by the D.C. Bar in a 2018 ethics opinion.  To avoid any ambiguity, lawyers should note in the narrative section of the fundraiser that they will not provide any information about the objectives of the representation, actions taken, specific uses of the funds or developments in the case.

When donors fund a lawyer's representation of a client through crowd-sourcing, they must do so with the understanding that they will receive no information about the representation.  We recommend including the proposed narrative language for the fundraiser in the engagement letter signed by the client, which should also describe the fundraising arrangement and the fact that the collected funds will be applied to legal fees and expenses as they are earned or incurred.

There may be instances in which a client wants a lawyer to provide case updates to donors or specific individuals.  To do so, the lawyer must obtain informed consent from the client.  This requires that the lawyer explain the risks of disclosure to the client and have the client approve of the exact information to be disclosed.

Most importantly, the client must understand that disclosing privileged and confidential information about the representation to third parties will destroy the attorney-client privilege and prevent the lawyer from later claiming privilege over the disclosed information.  The same warning should also be given to a client who is managing the fundraiser themselves and wishes to disclose case information or updates to donors.

Crowd-sourced Funds Cannot Interfere with a Lawyer's Professional Independence

Before accepting crowd-sourced funds as payment for legal services, a lawyer must obtain informed consent from the client.  This is true regardless of whether the lawyer is self-administering the funds as they are earned or whether the client is paying the lawyer's invoices using crowd-sourced funds.  Lawyers should consider including relevant language providing for this arrangement in their engagement letter with the client.  Under the Model Rules, even if such an arrangement is in place, a lawyer may not, under any circumstances, allow the person or persons paying the lawyer's fees to "direct or regulate the lawyer's professional judgment in rendering such legal services."

While donors' generosity often enables a client to pursue legal claims or defenses where it would otherwise be financially impossible, donors cannot control how the fundraised money is used within the representation.  Only the client determines the objectives of the representation and whether to follow the lawyer's recommended strategy.

Ensuring that the narrative statement on the fundraising website contains language informing donors that they will not be permitted to exert control or influence over the objectives of the representation or the methods by which they are carried out — in addition to not being entitled to case information — may prove helpful in warding off donors who believe that their dollars earn them a say in the representation.  There may be situations in which the donors' interests differ from those of the client — for example, where donors may wish to minimize the amount spent on the representation to get more for less or avoid taking steps in the representation that may be costly.

In circumstances where the lawyer is aware of divergent interests between the donors and the client, the lawyer cannot accept the representation or continue the crowdfunded payment arrangement unless the lawyer is certain that they can exercise independent judgment and will not allow the donors to interfere with their professional decision making.

Be Circumspect About Trial Publicity

Crowdfunded cases are often those that are highly publicized, political and involve public figures. They tend to come with an increased public desire for publicity and insider information.  Many of these cases go to trial, which further extends the period in which the public remains interested and heightens public intrigue.

Model Rule 3.6 governs trial publicity and warns lawyers against making statements that are likely to prejudice the proceedings in any way.  This is all the more true in highly publicized cases, where a lawyer's statements about a case are likely to be widely disseminated.  While media attention on a case does not change lawyers' confidentiality obligations under Model Rule 1.6, Model Rule 3.6 provides that lawyers can provide concrete facts about the case if they are unlikely to cause prejudice.

Lawyers can reveal basic information about the claim at issue, people involved, public records, the existence of a pending investigation, the scheduling or results of litigation, and requests for help in obtaining evidence, and they can offer warnings of danger to an individual or to the public.  In criminal cases, lawyers can provide additional information to the public, including, among other things, information about the residence and occupation of the accused, and the location, time and place of the arrest.

Where a client has suffered prejudice due to recent bad publicity, the lawyer can make statements to mitigate that prejudice.  A lawyer should not speak publicly about a case, however, without the consent of their client after the client weighs the risks and benefits of such disclosures.

Treat Cowdfunded Legal Fees as Advanced Fees, Safeguarding Them in a Trust Account

The two most prominent ethics opinions to address crowdfunded legal fees, a 2015 Philadelphia Bar opinion and a 2018 D.C. Bar opinion, emphasize the importance of safeguarding crowdfunded fees in a trust account and not moving them over to an operating account until they are earned.

As the D.C. Bar opinion notes, because crowdfunding can "trigger areas of confusion that may not be present in a traditional client-self pay situation," lawyers should establish, in a written fee agreement, the rate of their fees, the scope of the representation and specific plans for crowdfunded money, such as the ownership of excess crowdfunds and responsibility for payment if the crowdfunds do not fully cover legal fees and expenses.

Critically, funds collected by a lawyer on a client's behalf through crowdfunding should be treated as advanced fees and placed in a trust account for the client.  In the crowdfunded legal fees context, lawyers need to be especially cognizant of their duty not to charge excessive fees under Rule 1.5.  For example, if a matter resolves quickly, a lawyer would be hard-pressed to claim all of the proceeds of the fundraiser as fees.

Conclusion

The crowdfunding of legal fees represents an exciting opportunity to provide access to legal services to those for whom it might be otherwise unattainable.  With a principled approach — paying special attention to your obligations to maintain confidentiality and your professional independence, and safeguarding funds in a trust account — you can protect yourself from ethics mishaps while serving a wider array of clients.

Hilary Gerzhoy is a partner and vice chair of the legal ethics and malpractice group at HWG LLP.  Julienne Pasichow is an associate at the firm.

A recent the American Lawyer story by Dan Roe, “Can Rates Make Up for Expense Growth Much Longer?,” reports that large law firms became more expensive to operate and less profitable in 2022, despite growing in terms of revenue and head count.  While equity partners took home less money, associate and nonequity partner compensation continued to rise. Rate increases managed to keep gross revenue in the black as demand slid by nearly 2%.  Still, the profit margin for The Am Law 100 fell 2 percentage points to 42%, wiping out the profitability gains of 2021 and putting firms below the average 2020 profit margin of 43%. 

“The margin on the billable dollar is contracting, and that is causing law firms to increase their rates, and that is why GCs are saying, ‘Hey, maybe we bring this work in-house,’” says Aon Law Firm Advisory Team manager George Wolf.

Facing seemingly unavoidable increases in personnel expenses, law firms looked to technology for efficiency and real estate for cost savings in 2022.  But despite realization rates holding strong, some observers believe legal departments are at the end of their rope on rate hikes, prompting Big Law to get smart or shrink in the coming years.

Head-Count Growth, Comp Increases and Tech Investments Drove Expenses Up

Head-count growth accounted for a majority of the expense increases in the Am Law 100 last year.  Across the cohort of firms, head counts grew nearly 4.7%, compared to average expense increases of roughly 7%.  Law firms that saw the most expense growth were mostly firms that hired aggressively: Goodwin Procter posted a 24% increase in head count and a commensurate 22% increase in expenses.  Willkie Farr & Gallagher also saw a 22% increase in expenses with 19.5% more attorneys.

In addition to Goodwin, other tech-centric firms that staffed up to meet demand saw similar expense increases: Cooley was up almost 18% on expenses and 11.5% on lawyer head count, and Morrison & Foerster raised head count 6% with an expense increase of 11.9%.  On average, law firms saw expenses rise 3 percentage points more than head count.

Among the firms where head count increases significantly trailed expense increases, firm leaders most commonly cited increases in attorney compensation—particularly for associates.  “It’s a battle for talent at every level, and the reality is, for us to attract and retain and develop the best talent, we need to stay competitive with our peers in the market,” says Husch Blackwell CEO Paul Eberle, whose firm saw expenses rise 18.4% amid a 6.2% increase in head count.

At Baker & Hostetler, first-year associate compensation went up to $200,000 from $175,000, which partly influenced the firm’s 10% average rate increase in 2022.  Vinson & Elkins saw a similar situation, with expenses up 7.5% and head count down 3.2%; firm chair Keith Fullenweider says associate compensation was among the primary expense drivers.  Nonequity partners also got more expensive last year, with nonequity compensation per partner rising 2.7% in the Am Law 100 last year.

Big Law is also going big on tech, with firm leaders citing technology investments as the third-biggest source of expense increases in 2022 behind head count growth and compensation increases.  “From an expense standpoint, we’re witnessing more of a reallocation of expenses than a raw increase in typical areas of spend,” says Alston & Bird chairman Richard Hays. “It’s less on space but more on technology.”

Law firms in the Am Law 100 are spreading their tech budget across multiple areas, but data analytics, automation and artificial intelligence appear to lead the way.  Several firms including DLA Piper, Eversheds Sutherland, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe are testing an AI legal assistant called CoCounsel, and firms including DLA Piper and Debevoise & Plimpton are building out data analytics capabilities to improve efficiency and increase AI-oriented service offerings for clients.

Finally, the return of travel and events is also driving expenses up, although firm leaders had seen that coming. “Expenses went down dramatically in the form of events, travel, all those things,” says law firm management consultant Ralph Baxter, formerly the chairman and CEO of Orrick. “Every firm leader should be able to manage expectations.  What we saw in those two previous years is not going to repeat.”

Rates Went Up, but Realization Held

The Am Law 100 raised rates by an average of 7.2% by mid-2022, according to data from Wolters Kluwer ELM Solutions released in February, although the report showed significant variance between firms.  Roughly 40% of timekeepers didn’t raise rates at all through June 2022, but 9% raised rates by 20% or more.  About 15 firms in the Am Law 100 brought rates up 10% to 20%.

“Rates typically go up with the consumer price index, maybe 3% to 5% annually,” says Chris Ryan, executive vice president at HBR Consulting. “Now you’re seeing this much bigger swing and variance, which is probably alarming to legal departments who are asked to do more with diminishing budgets, given the state of uncertainty.”

Data collected by The American Lawyer shows that fewer firms were willing to raise rates by less than 3% this year: Whereas more than 20 firms in 2021 kept rate hikes at or below 3%, only seven firms in 2022 reported sub-3% rate increases.  This year will likely be a repeat of 2022, law firms indicated.

Despite raising rates more dramatically than usual, law firms didn’t report substantial drops in realization last year. Having raised rates 10% in 2022 after rate increases of 5.9% to 7.3% for the three years prior, BakerHostetler chairman and CEO Paul Schmidt says clients understood the situation. “Last year was a fairly strong (rate) increase, but with inflation, there was not much pushback on it,” Schmidt says.

How the Inflationary Cycle Ends

Ultimately, if Am Law 100 firms do nothing as billable hours continue to decline, that will indicate that work is leaving Big Law altogether.  “You don’t measure demand for soybeans by how many hours you spend harvesting soybeans,” says Baxter.  “People need legal services more than ever—there’s more regulation, more law, more controversy.  But if you see fewer billable hours, that means demand is moving away from the Am Law 100 to somewhere else.”

That “somewhere” could be in-house legal departments, alternative legal service providers, or regional law firms with lower rates.  “I’ve talked to a lot of regional firms over the past few years that get hired by a big client who has litigation in a place where (the firm) is centered.  The client hires them because they’re there, but they see how good the lawyers are, how responsive they are, how much less expensive they are, and they take them to other places,” Baxter added.

Speaking with in-house counsel, Wolf says legal departments are incensed by associate rate hikes—see the $1,060/hour second-year Kirkland & Ellis associate bill that recently went viral on legal Twitter.  “The rates that are being charged for younger attorneys are driving in-house counsel to start building staff again,” Wolf says.  “The offshoot of that is that’s where the least amount of work is available in law firms—younger attorneys.  And you need midlevel attorneys to help train them, and right now there’s a dearth of midlevels because of the Great Resignation.  That’s causing a problem for managing partners and law firm leaders.”

Rather than pulling back on rate hikes, law firms are looking to squeeze more value out of their personnel using technology, with the goal of reducing staffing costs for clients and compensation costs for firms.  “You’ve seen this shift toward looking at the profitability of individual practices and using data in a different way so they can position themselves in a better light with clients,” Ryan says.  “I think that firms are looking at those kinds of models and are more open to them than ever.”

Firms like DLA Piper, Orrick, Debevoise, Winston & Strawn, Mayer Brown, and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have all made investments in AI practices of late, with promises to deliver more efficiency to clients in addition to using AI to help them solve their legal problems.  “At its core, we think of it as making lawyers more efficient, increasing their quality of lives, increasing the work product if we can, or at a minimum ensuring it’s the same,” Orrick innovation adviser Vedika Mehera told Legaltech News in March.

Law firms’ substantial investments in artificial intelligence and data infrastructure could also have something to do with the existential threat such technologies pose to the billable hour.  “Generative AI is making it possible to do a lot of the work law firms do way faster,” Baxter says.  “If you continue to base how much you charge on how many hours it took you, then you’re going to have a material hit to your revenue—and an unnecessary one.”

However, on an aggregate basis, the Am Law 100 has made little progress on AFA adoption in recent years, with 18% of its 2023 revenue coming from such arrangements.  In high-stakes litigation, some firms have had success keeping clients who might have been priced out of their services by organizing litigation funding.  At Nixon Peabody, where rates went up 5% to 6% last year, chairman and CEO Stephen Zubiago says the firm has involved litigation funding with an increasing number of clients.  Regardless of which levers they choose to pull, firms will have to find ways to outrun expense growth in a climate where clients are holding tighter to their dollars as firms are losing a grip on their own spend.

A recent Law 360 article by Charles Agee, “5 Reasons Lawyers Often Fail To Secure Litigation Funding,” reports on litigation funding.  This article was posted with permission.  The article reads:

It's no secret that parties seeking litigation funding face steep odds in securing a deal.  How steep?  According to my firm's research, more than 95% of commercial litigation funding deals presented to any particular funder never advance to closing.  Experience tells me one of the overarching reasons the litigation finance deal closure rate is so low is that lawyers and their clients drastically underestimate the challenges and nuances of obtaining this specialized form of financing.

For many, the downside of trying and failing to secure funding is simply that — not obtaining the funding.  So why not approach a few funders and see if one bites?  On the surface, this approach has appeal; in reality, it is fraught with hidden costs.  The litigation fundraising process can be extremely laborious, and the time sunk into an unsuccessful deal typically is not billable.  Each year, leading law firms squander millions of dollars in time alone seeking funding for deals that do not bear fruit.

Even more concerning, lawyers who are unsuccessful in obtaining funding for their clients almost always damage their credibility with the client.  The good news is that these challenges can be anticipated and, in many instances, overcome.  To overcome those challenges, however, it is important to also examine why so many parties fail to obtain litigation funding. Here are the top five reasons why.

1. Misunderstanding the Funders' Acceptance Standards

Funders reject the lion's share of deals that they are shown because most of them should never have been brought to the market in the first place.  My colleagues and I have seen that far too many lawyers and clients present litigation opportunities that make no sense to pursue, regardless of who is funding the case.  Nothing can be done to change the substance of the underlying matter, and short of committing fraud, you are not going to sneak into a funder's vault with a meritless deal.

The best — and only — advice for these weak opportunities is to avoid the litigation fundraising process altogether.  But we also see that funders also reject a significant number of matters that are meritorious and economically viable enough for experienced litigation counsel to be willing to risk their own legal fees on a successful outcome.

Why are these opportunities declined?  The reason — and it may not be a satisfactory one — is that a litigation funder's diligence process and investment criteria are generally more rigorous than that of most law firms.  Unless a lawyer has a great deal of experience with funding, this disparity can be jarring and more than a little ego-bruising, especially when clients or colleagues are watching.

To appreciate why the litigation funders' bar is set so high, it is helpful to consider the investment proposition from their perspective.  The funder must develop a high degree of confidence in a financially successful outcome of a legal dispute — usually involving complex subject matter — because it will only receive an investment return if the underlying matter resolves favorably.

As a purely passive investor, the funder also must structure the deal in a way that achieves alignment with both counsel and client, and often the economics of even the strongest of cases are insufficient to do so.  Further, unlike a venture capital fund that can accept high levels of losses because of their upside in successful investments, litigation funders' more modest returns are too low to subsidize VC-level loss rates.

Because most litigation funders are relatively new and have not yet established substantial track records, this dynamic fosters a stronger bias toward risk aversion within the industry.  A litigation funder's diligence process is designed to find reasons not to invest in an opportunity. It also tends to follow a leave-no-stone-unturned approach, which can be exhausting for the party seeking funding.  However, even the most discriminating funders' processes can be successfully navigated with proper preparation and analysis before approaching the funder.

What are the main challenges counsel will face in the litigation, and how will these be overcome? What is counsel's track record in similar matters? What level of financial risk is counsel prepared to assume?  These are just a few of the questions that parties should consider before approaching funders. Lawyers and their clients are well-served to anticipate these and other questions that a skeptical investor might ask, and be prepared with clear and thoughtful responses.

2. Failing to Approach the Most Suitable Funders for the Opportunity

Parties seeking funding often fail to approach the funders most likely to invest in their claim.  There are currently 46 active commercial litigation funders in the U.S., each with different funding criteria, risk appetites, structuring preferences and return profiles.  Most parties seeking funding only present their opportunity to a few of these funders. This is a mistake, because even the largest funders in the world are not configured to accommodate every potential type of deal.

Without adequate knowledge of the market, it is difficult to know which funders are most suitable for a particular deal. It is critical to know what a funder's investment criteria are, including preferred deal size, type of litigation, jurisdictions and stage of litigation, among others.  Too often, parties meet resistance from funders that were never a good fit for the opportunity and elect to abandon the fundraising process altogether.  If they had only identified the right audience, they might have been able to secure funding.

3. Inadequately Packaging the Presentation of the Opportunity

First impressions matter, especially in litigation finance.  Our conversations with funders inform that the largest litigation funding firms see more than 1,000 opportunities a year and don't have the bandwidth to wade through poorly packaged opportunities.  Still, parties often fail to spend the time necessary to appropriately present an opportunity. The failure to properly present an opportunity often is the difference between a yes and a no.

What are the most common deficiencies in litigation fundraising presentations?  Most lawyers are more than capable of presenting the legal merits of an opportunity; however, we have observed time and again that they tend to fall short in demonstrating a thorough approach to the economics, i.e., the damages model and the budget.  Lawyers and clients may also downplay or omit entirely a case's potential challenges, whereas a funder expects these downsides to be soberly acknowledged and addressed.

Another similar mistake is to leave too many analytical black boxes in the presentation, such as factual questions that could be investigated now but are proposed to be left for discovery, or assumptions underlying the damages model that have not been rigorously researched.  The negative impression left by these and many other deficiencies is difficult to overcome.  Parties seeking funding should prepare a thoughtful and complete presentation of their financing opportunities.

4. Lacking Awareness of Norms That Guide Negotiations With Funders

A common misconception is that litigation funding deals are easy to negotiate and that funding agreements are relatively uniform.  In reality, these deals have several peculiarities and are governed by particular legal and ethical parameters.  Even parties with experience in other types of financing or business dealings struggle to extend their acumen to litigation financing deals.

Indeed, the process is guided by certain industry norms that outsiders may not necessarily appreciate or even be aware of. Parties that neglect to understand these nuances run a considerable risk of derailing the litigation fundraising process, sometimes after many months have been spent.  Each funder approaches the investment diligence and documentation processes differently.

For instance, some will provide parties a term sheet and, after the term sheet is executed, proceed to deeper diligence and final deal documents.  Other funders might have a three-phase negotiation process where the party is expected to execute a term sheet, a letter of intent and then a litigation funding agreement. Parties should be prepared to negotiate with the funder at each phase of the process.

Prior to closing, the last document to be negotiated is the definitive litigation funding agreement, or similarly named instrument.  While no two funding agreements are identical, most agreements have certain types of provisions that are essential to the funder, given the contingent-repayment, no-control nature of the investment.  Parties seeking funding should understand that these types of provisions are nonnegotiable and that pressing too hard can sour an otherwise fruitful closing process.

5. Prematurely Agreeing to Exclusivity With a Funder

Perhaps the most critical decision in the litigation fundraising process involves granting exclusivity to a funder.  Once a term sheet has been negotiated, a funder will nearly always require a period of exclusivity — sometimes more than 60 days — to complete its diligence and documentation of the transaction. After granting exclusivity, you are largely at the funder's mercy.

Parties seeking funding almost universally misread the significance of obtaining a term sheet from a funder, mistakenly believing that the probability of closing is far higher than it actually is.  Depending on the funder and the extent of its preliminary due diligence, the term sheet can merely be a hope certificate describing what a transaction might look like. Terms may be retraded or, as is often the case, the funder declines to proceed with the deal following a deeper dive into the opportunity.

Selecting the wrong funder for exclusivity may also hamper a party's future prospects of securing a deal with another funder, if negotiations with the original funder stall.  Funders will often assume that the deal with the original funder stalled because of a fatal flaw in the deal.

In an industry that is already risk-averse by nature, this kind of red flag in the middle of a fundraising process is extraordinarily difficult to overcome.  The key to avoiding this mistake — aside from refusing to grant exclusivity — is to understand the approach, process and track record of any funder requesting exclusivity.

The party seeking funding should also assess the extent of the funder's preliminary diligence and the degree to which the funder grasps the key issues.  Of course, ensuring that all material facts have been disclosed to the funder prior to exclusivity also helps avoid surprises. But candor may not be enough to avoid this pitfall.  Exclusivity is a necessary evil in the litigation finance industry — for now — and parties seeking funding should be extremely judicious in granting it.

Conclusion

While securing litigation funding may seem daunting, there are ways to beat those odds and maximize the chances of securing funding.  Parties that approach the market in a thoughtful and informed manner have a much higher likelihood of success and of avoiding wasteful dead ends.  As the market continues to mature, funders should innovate and improve their processes to make the experience more predictable and user-friendly.  Until then, experience in the market and knowledge of the funders and their approaches will remain the key to improving the odds of obtaining litigation financing.

Charles Agee is managing partner at Westfleet Advisors.

A recent Law 360 story by Caroline Simson, “King & Spalding Says Fee Fight Must Be Arbitrated”, reports that King & Spalding is urging a Texas court to force a former client to arbitrate allegations that the firm fraudulently colluded with Burford Capital to maximize fees while representing him ​​in a treaty claim​ against Vietnam, pointing to an arbitration clause in the underlying fee agreement.  Fighting back against Trinh Vinh Binh's arguments earlier this month that the clause is inapplicable because the firm didn't sign the funding agreement with Burford, King & Spalding argued in a brief that the clause is broad enough to encompass the dispute.

Binh, who's accused the firm and two of its international arbitration partners in Houston of making a "mockery of the fiduciary obligations an attorney owes to their clients," told the court that the funding agreement doesn't contain any reference to King & Spalding.  In fact, the firm had already inked a deal with him that laid out all the terms of their relationship and did not include an arbitration clause, he said.

But the firm pointed in its brief to the wording of the clause, noting that it applies to "any controversy or claim" that is "relat[ed] to" the funding agreement.  The clause also applies to "any other transaction document," which includes a "counsel letter" through which Binh instructed the firm to distribute any arbitration proceeds in accordance with the funding agreement, according to the brief.  "Plaintiff cannot reasonably dispute that his claims 'relate to' the [funding agreement] and the counsel letter," according to the brief, which notes that Binh is seeking damages based on the firm's alleged failure to allocate the arbitration proceeds in compliance with the funding agreement.

"While plaintiff attempts to characterize these claims as arising out of the engagement agreement, that agreement does not address the allocation of arbitration proceeds," the firm continued. "The terms cited in the petition were set forth in the [funding agreement] and 'agreed to' by defendants through the counsel letter, bringing those claims squarely within the ambit of the [funding agreement]'s arbitration agreement."

Counsel for Binh declined to comment, saying they will file a response with the court.  Binh sued King & Spalding and two of its partners, Reggie R. Smith and Craig S. Miles, in June, alleging they made a "mockery of the fiduciary obligations an attorney owes to their clients" by "colluding" with litigation funder Burford to take more of the arbitration proceeds than Binh had agreed to.

The law firm had represented Binh in a treaty claim against Vietnam over the confiscation of certain real estate that ended in a $45 million award against the country in 2019.  In the arbitration, filed in 2015, Binh accused the country of improperly taking several valuable properties he says were worth an estimated $214 million.  Under their deal, the law firm agreed to hold back 30% of billings for fees and defer the payment of those amounts until work had concluded in the arbitration.

At the same time, Binh entered into a funding agreement with Burford Capital with a $4.678 million spending cap, according to the suit.  Binh claims that King & Spalding told him the firm could complete the arbitration work within that cap.  But by May 2016, the firm had already billed and been paid some $1.9 million, leaving about $1.8 million after initial costs and expenses had been paid out.  Binh alleges that at that point the firm, "motivated by securing continued, guaranteed immediate payment of their fees, colluded with Burford" to contrive a scheme to increase the amount potentially owed by Binh by increasing the cap on King & Spalding's legal fees and, consequently, increasing Burford's potential entitlement to an increased return.

Binh says that the way the agreement worked was that the more King & Spalding billed against the cap amount in legal spending, the more he was at risk of paying a so-called success return, to be paid if he prevailed in the arbitration.  The success return was to be split between King & Spalding and Burford based on the relative portion of their investments in the arbitration, Binh said.  Binh alleges that King & Spalding tried to make him agree to increase the cap on expenditures for legal fees — and potentially, provide more of a return for Burford — but that he refused.  Thereafter, Burford and the law firm allegedly executed a side agreement between themselves.

In addition to accusing King & Spalding of breaching its fiduciary duty, Binh's lawsuit includes claims for negligence if the overpayment of fees was due to a mistake, as well as claims of misrepresentation and fraud.  He also accuses the firm of negligence after the tribunal in the case against Vietnam rejected an expert report the firm provided stating that Binh's property was worth some $214 million.  The tribunal instead awarded $45.4 million.

A recent Law 360 story by Caroline Simson, “No Arbitration For King & Spalding Client Fight, Court Hears”, reports that a Dutch citizen who accuses King & Spalding LLP of fraudulently colluding with Burford Capital to maximize fees ​​in a treaty claim​ against Vietnam​ is fighting the law firm's efforts to send the fee dispute to arbitration, arguing that an arbitration clause in the funding agreement is inapplicable.

Trinh Vinh Binh sued King & Spalding and two of its international arbitration partners in Houston, Reggie R. Smith and Craig S. Miles, in June, alleging they made a "mockery of the fiduciary obligations an attorney owes to their clients" by "colluding" with litigation funder Burford to take more of the arbitration proceeds than Binh had agreed to.  The law firm had represented Binh in a treaty claim against Vietnam over the confiscation of certain real estate that ended in a $45 million award against the country in 2019.

King & Spalding pressed a federal court in Houston last month to send the dispute with Binh to arbitration, citing an arbitration clause in the funding agreement and alleging that Binh excluded Burford from his suit in an attempt to skirt the clause.  The law firm claims that even though it is not a signatory to the funding agreement, the broad scope of the clause provides for arbitration of any dispute arising out of the pact.

But Binh argued that the clause governs disputes only between him and Burford, and not with any third parties. He said that the engagement agreement he signed with King & Spalding when he retained the firm for the Vietnam matter makes no mention of arbitration for disputes.  "Defendants are attorneys, and they certainly know how to draft an arbitration clause.  But the engagement agreement between Binh and defendants contains no arbitration clause," Binh's attorneys said. "Try as they might, defendants have not shown — and cannot show — that they may properly invoke the [funding agreement's] arbitration clause.  Binh therefore respectfully requests that this court deny defendants' motion."

King & Spalding had represented Binh in an arbitration matter filed against Vietnam in 2015, in which Binh accused the country of improperly taking several valuable properties he says were worth an estimated $214 million.  Under their deal, the law firm agreed to hold back 30% of billings for fees and defer the payment of those amounts until work had concluded in the arbitration.  At the same time, Binh entered into a funding agreement with Burford Capital with a $4.678 million spending cap, according to the suit.

Binh claims that King & Spalding told him the firm could complete the arbitration work within that cap.  But by May 2016, the firm had already billed and been paid some $1.9 million, leaving about $1.8 million after initial costs and expenses had been paid out.

Binh alleges that at that point the firm, "motivated by securing continued, guaranteed immediate payment of their fees, colluded with Burford" to contrive a scheme to increase the amount potentially owed by Binh by increasing the cap on King & Spalding's legal fees and, consequently, increasing Burford's potential entitlement to an increased return.  The way the agreement worked was that the more King & Spalding billed against the cap amount in legal spending, the more Binh was at risk of paying a so-called success return, to be paid if Binh prevailed in the arbitration.  The success return was to be split between King & Spalding and Burford based on the relative portion of their investments in the arbitration.

Binh alleges that King & Spalding tried to make him agree to increase the cap on expenditures for legal fees — and potentially, provide more of a return for Burford — but that he refused.  Thereafter, Burford and the law firm allegedly executed a side agreement between themselves.

In addition to accusing King & Spalding of breaching its fiduciary duty, Binh's lawsuit includes claims for negligence if the overpayment of fees was due to a mistake, as well as claims of misrepresentation and fraud.  He also accuses the firm of negligence after the tribunal in the case against Vietnam rejected an expert report the firm provided stating that Binh's property was worth some $214 million.  The tribunal instead awarded $45.4 million.

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