Chair’s Message

By Everett L. Green
BLS Chair

Around this time last year, the first cases of what we now know to be COVID-19 were discovered, and our lives have not been the same.  We endured quarantines and lockdowns — masked and socially distant from our family, friends, and colleagues — while learning how to navigate virtual depositions, trials, and meetings. 

While COVID-19 and its variants have brought unforeseen changes, our core duties have not changed.  We remain obligated to maintain the legal knowledge and skill necessary to provide quality representation to our clients. 

The Business Law Section’s objective, as always, is to further that goal.  And towards that end, in 2021-2022 the Business Law Section will offer a slate of programs to keep you informed of changes in the law and its practice. 

The growth of “litigation finance” — the funding of lawsuits by outside investors — is being closely watched by the judiciary, the bar, and practitioners. In fact, in 2020, the State Bar’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct issued a formal opinion to address some of the ethical issues that arise from such arrangements.

According to the opinion, two types of third-party litigation funding have emerged over the last several years: consumer litigation funding, which provides funding to plaintiffs for personal use rather than to fund their case, and commercial litigation funding, which typically involves advancing funds to pay a plaintiff’s litigation expenses or otherwise.

The practice poses risks of conflicting interests and improper influence; and yet if carefully managed may improve the resolution of cases.  On October 21st at noon, please join Business Law Section members and Honorable Meredith A. Jury (ret.), James P. Hill, Gary Rudolph and General counsel of Legalist, Curtis Smolar as they discuss and analyze litigation funding issues in bankruptcy.