Prerequisites: None

Exam Type: One-Day Take Home

Many of the most consequential developments in modern civil litigation are best understood as results of changes in the financing and capitalization of the Bar. The past two decades have seen a global transformation with the emergence, explosive growth, and evolution of a market in legal claims in which lawsuits are bought, sold, and invested in. In this course, we will explore cutting-edge changes in how litigation and law firms are financed and explore their effects on both civil litigation and the global legal profession. The course consists of three units that build on each other: litigation finance, law firm finance, and the future of the legal profession.

We will explore the body of law governing litigation finance that has emerged in recent years, including court cases and ethics regulation; theoretical questions and approaches; policy implications; the effects of financing on litigation strategy and on the relationships between lawyers and their clients; and the profound changes it has set into motion in the civil justice system as a whole. We will examine how changes in the financing of and trading in lawsuits have morphed into a transformation in the financing of law firms; how the changes in finance may converge with other key developments in the legal profession, such as technological changes, globalization and anti-globalization; how these changes are transforming law firm governance, the landscape of the legal profession—including entrepreneurship in the legal sector—and the careers of lawyers. Finally, we will think through possible ways that the revolution in the financing of lawsuits and law firms might affect the future of the legal profession including the business models of law firms; the role of lawyers in society; and how society may react and change the regulation of the practice of law.