On 10 October 2018, Burford Capital launched The Equity Project. As described in Burford’s press release, The Equity Project is “a groundbreaking initiative designed to help close the gender gap in law by providing an economic incentive for change through a $50 million pool of capital earmarked for financing commercial litigation and arbitration matters led by women.”
The Equity Project provides a pool of capital reserved for matters led by women. With capital from The Equity Project, women litigators and women-owned firms may be able to pitch attractive alternative fee arrangements to clients and pitch client-friendly alternative billing arrangements to their management committees for new business.
The Equity Project is a global initiative led by Aviva Will, Senior Managing Director of Burford’s investment team. In the press release, Ms. Will commented, “over the nearly ten years we’ve been in business, under ten percent [of funding requests] were for matters run by women. We can and must change this—and we believe this capital commitment can have an immediate impact on women lawyers’ ability to generate business.”
This is an exciting development for women in litigation and arbitration. You can learn more about the Equity Project by visiting Burford’s website: http://www.burfordcapital.com/customers/the-equity-project/
Burford is a Jubilee sponsor of ArbitralWomen’s Diversity Conference and Gala Dinner in New York City on 8 November 2018.