Alumni in Residence with Brandon Baer J.D. ’97 of Contingency Capital

Thursday, February 27, 2025 from 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m. EST

The Alumni in Residence program connects current HLS students with accomplished HLS alumni for one-on-one career mentoring and advice. You’re invited to meet with Brandon Baer J.D. ’97 during their on-campus office hours. Sign up for a 20-minute in-person appointment.

Brandon Baer J.D. ’97

Brandon Baer has built a career in finance, culminating in 2020 with his founding of Contingency Capital, a global asset management firm focused on credit oriented legal assets. Please see more about Brandon in his own words below:

When I was at law school, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I had majored at Princeton in European history with a minor in Russian literature. After graduating in 1993 (deferring the start of law school to work in finance for a European asset manager), I started HLS in 1994. At HLS, I spent a lot of my extra-curricular time focusing on the HLS Drama Society – I wrote, produced, directed, and acted in the HLS Parody for three years. I graduated in 1997 with a mountain of debt and started as an associate at Willkie Farr and Gallagher.

Although I enjoyed my time in private practice, I had always been curious about careers outside of the law. I had interviewed for consulting and investment banking jobs. Four years into my legal career, I had a moment of reflection late one night at the office. At around 4AM, while re-drafting a section of an M&A Agreement, I started present- valuing and probability- weighting my partnership optionality. and aAs I was doing the math, realized I probably was not in the right seat.

I left the practice of law and started working at D.E. Shaw & Co., in 2002. I mainly focused on distressed investing in complex private illiquids. Almost all ofall my investments relied heavily on my legal background – particularly those involving in bankruptcy and litigation processes. In 2010, I joined Fortress Investment Group as a partner in the corporate securities group, focusing on litigation finance, distressed debt, and special situations, with an emphasis on deep value investing, event driven bankruptcy related strategies, and capital structure arbitrage. While at Fortress, I co-founded and co-headed the Legal Assets group which invests primarily in litigation finance and other contingent assets.

After almost ten years, I left Fortress, launching Contingency Capital in 2020. We employ a credit-oriented approach to investing in legal assets –where the main driver of value is a legal, tax, or regulatory process. To date, we have over a billion dollars in AUM and are currently raising our second fund.

While it all may look carefully planned in retrospect or on a resume, at almost every point in my career path there were multiple points where I could have ended up in a completely different place. I look forward to the opportunity to share my background with current students and discuss the many opportunities to use an HLS degree in interesting and unconventional ways.