Davis, Robin M.
Robin M. Davis, Esq., Senior Investment Officer, Woodsford, Philadephia
Robin M. Davis is a highly skilled attorney with expertise in both litigating and investing in intellectual property cases. A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cornell Law School, she was a partner in a New York City-based patent litigation boutique law firm prior to joining Woodsford Litigation Funding as a Senior Investment Officer. Robin is admitted to the state bars of New York and Pennsylvania and, while in private practice, advised clients on matters pending in various US district courts, the International Trade Commission (ITC) and Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB). In her current position with Woodsford Litigation Funding, Robin leads the diligence and monitoring of investments in intellectual property litigation, with a particular emphasis on US patent infringement matters.
Ahmed, Razzaq
Razzaq Ahmed is an associate in Brown Rudnick's Litigation group, focusing on group litigation and claims arising from regulatory investigations. He advises start-ups through to FTSE 100 companies on contentious situations and advises clients in relation to Environment, Social and Governance matters. Razzaq has previously been seconded to one of the largest FTSE 100 insurers and also has experience in the Financial Conduct Authority's complex cases and enforcement teams on matters such as Payment Protection insurance remediation and the investigation into the Royal Bank of Scotland's Global Restructuring Group in relation to the treatment of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Friel, Steven
Steven Friel is Chief Executive Officer at Woodsford, one of the most well-established litigation funders in the international market. Steven has repeatedly been ranked by independent directories as a leader in the field. Chambers and Partners, 2020: 'Steven Friel is. praised for his hands-on approach and ability to work constructively on even the biggest and most complicated matters. He is very easy to deal with. He grasps the facts and the law extremely quickly. He is an extremely good resource for Woodsford - a great strategic thinker.' Chambers and Partners, 2019: 'He seems to have limitless energy to explore things, and he's extremely sharp.' Chambers and Partners, 2018: 'Steven Friel is very impressive. He has a razor sharp legal mind, is intellectually curious, and has strong business sense.'
Before joining Woodsford, Steven was a partner in the London office of international law firm Brown Rudnick. Prior to joining Brown Rudnick, Steven was a partner in the London office of DAC Beachcroft, and practised from the London and New York offices of Debevoise & Plimpton. Steven is a law graduate of Cambridge University, and graduated top of his class with a Master of Laws degree in International Dispute Resolution from the University of London.
Walsh, Simon
Simon Walsh, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft
Simon Walsh is Special Counsel in Cadwalader's Global Litigation Group, based in London.
Simon focuses on high value international commercial arbitration and complex cross-border litigation and has acted for clients in the telecoms, private equity, financial, maritime, offshore, power and aviation sectors. Simon has extensive experience of managing multi-jurisdictional litigation in the offshore courts in Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands as well as in Europe and Russia. Simon also has detailed knowledge of the enforcement and annulment of international arbitral awards and judgments.
Prior to joining Cadwalader, Simon was Senior Investment Officer with Woodsford Litigation Funding in London, where he was responsible for global litigation and arbitration investments. Simon had a particular focus on group and representative litigation in England & Wales.
He holds a Master's Degree in International Trade and Maritime Law from the University of Southampton.
Spiteri, Mark
Mark Spiteri, Commercial and Finance Director, Woodsford, London
Mark Spiteri graduated from the London School of Economics in 1997 where he read Economics & Industrial Relations. He is a Chartered Accountant, qualifying with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, where he held positions in both the Consultancy and Corporate Finance divisions before joining Woodsford Consulting, a Family Office, in 2005. Mark subsequently became Managing Director of Woodsford Consulting, where he was responsible for sourcing and implementing investments across the financial services and real estate sectors. Mark was a founder director of Woodsford Litigation Funding (WLF), an international litigation finance business, established in 2010. Mark still serves on the board of WLF as its Finance & Commercial Director, while he also holds a number of non-Executive positions including at Dom Development SA, Poland's largest listed residential developer and Woodsford TradeBridge, an alternative finance provider. His interests outside of business include the environment, with a particular interest in oceans as well as sports and family life.
Capper, David
David Capper is Reader in Law, Queen's University Belfast, UK.
Winfield, Imogen
Imogen Winfield, Associate, Brown Rudnick LLP, London
Imogen is an associate in the International Disputes team in Brown Rudnick's London office. Imogen has experience in a wide range of commercial disputes, ranging from high-value breach of contract and negligence claims between financial institutions to disputes concerning privacy, harassment and defamation issues. Imogen has acted for senior individuals in connection with regulatory investigations and has a particular interest in disputes arising out of financial contexts.
Toms, Christian
Christian Toms, Partner, Brown Rudnick LLP, London
Christian Toms is a member of Brown Rudnick's International disputes team. He regularly advises in a range of matters, with particular experience in complex financial disputes, contentious financial regulatory matters, and director/shareholder/joint venture disputes. He has previously acted for and against investment banks, hedge funds and other investor groups.
Before joining Brown Rudnick, Chris was an associate barrister with the then Lovells LLP. Prior to that, he was a tenant in London chambers defending and prosecuting criminal cases. His previous experience at the Criminal Bar gives him an invaluable insight when advising on contentious regulatory and White Collar matters. Chris has been recognised by Legal 500 for a number of years and is a highly regarded and noted lawyer in the fields of Banking Litigation: Investment and Retail; Commercial Litigation: Premium; and Fraud: Civil. In 2020 Chris was appointed to judicial office by HM the Queen. He now sits as a Recorder.
Pert, Lucy
Lucy Pert, Hausfeld, London, UK
Lucy, partner at Hausfeld London, has almost 20 years of commercial dispute resolution experience with a focus on financial services, contentious restructuring, insolvency and shareholder disputes, as well as general commercial work. She has extensive experience of managing cross-border litigation and commercial arbitration. Lucy's client base includes corporates, hedge funds, private equity funds, insolvency practitioners and high net worth individuals. Prior to working at Hausfeld, Lucy was Of Counsel at Quinn Emanuel, having joined from Freshfields. Lucy also has experience working directly in third party litigation finance, having worked for Harbour Litigation Funding. This insight coupled with Hausfeld's wide ranging experience with flexible fee structures and litigation finance, means she is well-placed to advise clients on litigation funding matters, including strategies for securing funding.
Schuller, Eric
Eric Schuller, President, The Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding
Eric is the current President of the industry Trade Association, The Alliance for Responsible Consumer Legal Funding also known as ARC. In his role as President Eric directs and manages all the Government Affairs issues that confront the industry on national bases.
He is a Member of the Board of Directors of the State Government Affairs Council (SGAC), an Advisory Board Member of the Dispute Financing Library of the Center on Civil Justice at NYU Law School and an active participant in the Council of State Governments (CSG), National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) and the Council of Western Attorneys General (CWAG) and National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG).
Eric retired from the United States Army and National Guard after 23 years of Service. His background was in Military Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Military Police Operations.
He has a Bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Business.
Wade, Jared
Jared Wade, Partner, Vault Group LLP
Jared Wade is a Partner of Vault Group LLP. In addition to focusing on real estate and private equity fund clients, Jared also has extensive experience in advising UK and European-based SMEs on US corporate tax matters. He is a certified public accountant (CPA) in the State of Ohio and has been based in London since 2010.
Jared has 11 years of experience providing comprehensive US tax advisory and compliance services to his clients. As an advisor, Jared has led clients through various transactional matters, including pre-acquisition diligence, deal structuring, and post-acquisition structure rationalisation. With respect to compliance, Jared has been responsible for meeting federal, state and local tax reporting requirements for a diverse base of clients operating in a variety of industries. Jared also has significant experience in assisting non-US corporations in navigating US-inbound taxation matters.
Tran, David
David Tran, Tax Director, BDO UK LLP
David is a UK Chartered Tax Adviser, with 14 years' experience advising clients across a broad range of UK and international corporate tax areas. He works in the BDO London financial services tax team and his specialism is dealing with asset managers, investment funds (hedge, private equity and debt) and their investors.
David has particular experience advising mid-sized and fast growing asset managers and funds throughout their life, from initial structuring and implementation, dealing with ongoing tax compliance, advising on acquisitions and post-acquisition reorganisations and tax considerations on exit.
David advises a number of UK-based corporate litigation funders on tax matters from structuring the investment vehicles, considerations regarding the form of litigation funding, the taxation of returns for the fund and investors, remuneration for managers, and dealing with UK tax returns for the manager and UK funds.
Lempiner, Alex
Alex Lempiner, Woodsford, Philadelphia
Alex Lempiner, EVP and US General Counsel for Woodsford, leverages his 20+ years of legal and industry experience to oversee all US corporate and legal matters.
Alex's career began in Milbank's New York office where for six years he represented administrative agents, lenders and borrowers on a wide range of syndicated financings and capital markets transactions.
Alex departed Milbank for Coventry First, where, as the company's first in-house lawyer, he helped make it the leading life settlement company. As SVP and Chief Compliance Officer, Alex managed all operational matters, implemented processes for regulatory compliance and structured credit facilities supporting innovative insurance products.
After twelve years at Coventry, Alex joined Rembrandt IP Management to build its litigation finance operations. As Corporate Counsel and Secretary, Alex was responsible for all legal matters and handled all litigation funding transactions.
Alex's JD is from NYU School of Law and his BA from The Pennsylvania State University.
Summerfield, Ben
Ben Summerfield, Partner, Reed Smith LLP, London
Ben is a partner in the London office of Reed Smith's Global Commercial Disputes Group. He represents clients in multi-jurisdictional commercial litigation and international arbitration matters. He is recognised as one of the leading practitioners in the London market, where he acts in major cases for international clients, ranging from major institutions, governments and ultra-high net worth individuals. Ben's work spans a broad number of sectors including financial services, technology, telecoms, media and energy. Ben is an advocate for alternative funding of disputes and has acted in litigation and arbitration matters where third party funding has been deployed for his clients, as well as defending cases where the claim has been third-party funded.
Nayer, Ravi
Ravi Nayer, Partner, Brown Rudnick LLP, London
Ravi Nayer's practice focuses on group litigation, acting on behalf of the UK's largest financial services institutions. As well as advising on the merits and conduct of securities class actions and regulatory enforcement actions, Ravi advises on governance policies and procedures relating to bondholder litigation and securities class actions and related fiduciary duties. His experience includes creating joint defence and novel litigation cooperation agreements for peer institutions in some of the UK's largest class actions, including the recent RBS Rights Issue litigation.
Ravi also advises clients on the design and implementation of private-sector compensation schemes, which he had led on in the UK in recent years, arising from alleged mass torts, most recently for Manchester City Football Club and the UK construction industry relating to the alleged blacklisting of workers, as well as the first ICO-approved data compensation scheme.
Mansfield, Walter
Walter Mansfield, Partner, Vault Group LLP
Walter Mansfield is a certified public accountant (CPA). His experience covers an array of US tax consulting and compliance issues across a broad range of industries, with particular focus on private equity, venture capital, and real estate funds.
Walter's 20 years of experience cover a wide variety of US domestic and international tax issues spanning many industries, including real estate, financial services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, hi-tech, energy and resources, and healthcare. Walter has served these clients in mergers and acquisitions, international structuring, tax return filings, revenue agent reviews, state tax issues, and other matters. Since relocating to London in January 2007, he has been responsible for providing substantial US tax consulting and reporting services for numerous global investment funds, with a primary emphasis on private equity, venture capital, and real estate funds.
Beasley, Philippa
Philippa Beasley, Associate, Reed Smith LLP, London
Philippa is an Associate within the Global Commercial Disputes Group based in Reed Smith's London office. Philippa trained and qualified at an international law firm in South Africa, before moving to the UK. Philippa's core areas of practice are commercial litigation, financial services litigation, regulatory investigations and professional negligence disputes. Philippa has varied experience in large complex cross-border litigation and regulatory matters. Her litigation experience includes the English High Court, predominantly in the Business and Property Court, Commercial Court and Chancery Division. Her regulatory experience includes dealings with the Serious Fraud Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Shrimpton, Neill
Neill Shrimpton, Partner, Brown Rudnick LLP, London
Neill Shrimpton is head of Brown Rudnick's Litigation team in London, and practises in all areas of commercial litigation and arbitration. He has represented clients in disputes in all divisions of the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the Privy Council, and pursuant to the rules of many arbitration institutions. He has extensive offshore experience, in particular in the British Virgin Islands and the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal. He has also acted for parties in arbitrations pursuant to the LCIA and ICC Rules.
Neill is experienced in representing clients under criminal and/or regulatory investigation, having advised clients in recent years in connection with investigations by the National Crime Agency and the Serious Fraud Office.
Neill has been recognised by Legal 500 for a number of years. He is a recommended lawyer in Legal 500 2020 in the fields of Banking Litigation (Investment and Retail), Commercial Litigation, and Civil Fraud.
Siffert, David
David Siffert, New York University School of Law - Center on Civil Justice
David Siffert serves as Director of Research and Projects at the Center on Civil Justice at NYU School of Law, a centre dedicated to the study of the civil justice system in the United States and how it can continue to fulfill its purposes. Prior to joining the Center, Siffert was a civil litigator at Boies, Schiller & Flexner. Siffert clerked for Hon. Robert S. Smith, Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and Hon. Barbara S. Jones, United States District Judge for the Southern District of New York. Siffert is an alumnus of New York University School of Law ('09) and the University of Chicago (AB '06).
Middlemass, John
John Middlemass, Tax Manager, BDO UK LLP
John is a UK Chartered Accountant and Chartered Tax Adviser, with seven years' experience advising clients across a broad range of UK and international corporate tax areas. He works across the BDO London financial services and transactions tax teams and he specialises in dealing with asset managers, investment funds and their investors. John started his career working as an accountant before moving into the world of corporate tax, and so has been able to bring a good background in accounting to his role.
John has particular experience advising private equity houses on initial fund structuring, acquisitions of target businesses and tax considerations of exits, including implications for investors in the fund. He is also involved in sell-side transactions, advising founders and management groups through the exit or partial exit from their business.
John works closely with David Tran advising a number of UK based corporate litigation funders on tax matters from structuring the investment vehicles, considerations regarding the form of litigation funding, the taxation of returns for the fund and investors, remuneration for managers, and dealing with UK tax returns for the manager and UK funds.
Patel, Anisha
Anisha Patel, Associate, Fox Williams
Anisha is an Associate and Solicitor Advocate in Fox Williams' dispute resolution team. She has significant experience working on high-profile securities litigation and group actions, banking and finance litigation, and international commercial and investment treaty arbitration. She has acted for businesses and investors in the financial services, shipping, technology, fashion and energy sectors. Anisha also has experience advising clients on corporate accountability policy and regulation, and takes a keen interest in developments in investor stewardship and ESG investing.
Barnes, Jonathan
Jonathan Barnes is Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel at Woodsford. Before leaving private practice, Jonathan enjoyed a successful 20-year career in the City of London as a transactional lawyer. In 2006 he joined longstanding client Woodsford Consulting - a business consultancy and Family Office of a wealthy European family - as a director and subsequently CEO. Jonathan co-founded Woodsford Litigation Funding in 2010 and has been central to its successful growth. Woodsford is a founder member of both the International Legal Finance Association and the Association of Litigation Funders of England and Wales and Jonathan serves on the Management Committee of the former and the Board of the latter.
Shafton, Emma
Emma Shafton, Associate, Reed Smith LLP, London
Formerly at the London Bar, Emma joined Reed Smith's Global Commercial Disputes and Global Regulatory Enforcement groups in February 2019. Emma's practice focuses on corporate crime, investigations and civil fraud. She frequently advises clients suspected of fraud, money laundering, bribery and corruption, market abuse, and insider dealing. Emma advises clients on all aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 including asset freezes/forfeiture, confiscation and AML compliance. In her commercial litigation practice, Emma has particular experience of conducting complex civil conspiracy claims. In the litigation funding sphere, Emma has recently acted for a funded claimant as part of a cross-border team seeking to monetise a portfolio of non-performing loans valued at over $600 million.
Sebok, Anthony
Anthony Sebok, Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University, New York
Professor Sebok is an expert on mass torts, litigation finance, comparative tort law, and legal philosophy. Before coming to Cardozo in 2007, he was the Centennial Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Research at Brooklyn Law School where he taught for 15 years. He is the author of Legal Positivism in American Jurisprudence, and numerous articles and essays on legal finance and insurance law. His casebook, Tort Law: Responsibilities and Redress, which he co-authored with John Goldberg and Benjamin Zipursky, is used at several leading law schools. Professor Sebok was the Academic Co-Reporter, with W. Bradley Wendel, of the ABA Commission on Ethics 20/20 Informational Report on Alternative Litigation Finance (2012).
Morris, Charlie
Charlie Morris, Chief Investment Officer, Woodsford
Charlie is an English-qualified senior lawyer with significant experience of handling high-value class actions and group litigation in numerous jurisdictions, both in his capacity as a lawyer and as a litigation funder. As Chief Investment Officer of Woodsford Litigation Funding, Charlie has overall responsibility for Woodsford's investments outside of the United States and, in particular, plays a key role in Woodsford's investments in securities and antitrust class actions in the UK, Australia and continental Europe. Charlie was previously a solicitor at London disputes boutique Enyo Law and international firm Addleshaw Goddard.
'Charlie. has been praised for his expertise on financial services matters, with sources reporting that he is "extremely knowledgeable in those areas, possibly more so than the lawyers who run the cases. If I had a case like that I would go to him." Chambers and Partners, 2020.'
Hill, Andrew
Andrew Hill, Partner, Fox Williams
Andrew is a Partner at the City law firm, Fox Williams LLP, and leads the firm's securities litigation and group actions practice. He is dual-qualified in Australia and England and Wales, and has significant experience with the class action regimes in both jurisdictions. He has been at the forefront of developing securities litigation in the UK, and drove the launch of the UK's first such claim against a public company - the high-profile and ground-breaking case against Tesco plc for a large group of institutional investors, following Tesco's admission of a profit overstatement in 2014.
Krug, Zachary
Zachary Krug, Woodsford, London
A trial litigator by training, with deep experience in both finance and law, Zachary Krug helps lead Woodsford's US and international investments. Zachary believes strongly that access to justice should not be dictated by financial resources and that litigation finance can play a pivotal role in vindicating legal rights. At Woodsford, Zachary works closely with plaintiffs and lawyers to not only provide much-needed capital, but to craft winning strategies from day one through to enforcement.
Zachary has extensive trial litigation experience, having represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of commercial disputes in state and federal courts in the United States, as well as in international proceedings. He has particular expertise in intellectual property disputes and technology-related matters, complex business litigation and competitor disputes, government contracts and whistle-blower actions, art-related matters, and international human rights litigation.
Prior to joining Woodsford, Zachary was a trial litigator for nearly a decade and half. He most recently was a litigator in the Los Angeles office of the global litigation firm Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. Prior to that, he was an associate in the New York office of Shearman & Sterling, where he focused on international disputes and project finance.
Zachary received his JD from Cornell Law School, where he was an Articles Editor on the Cornell Law Review, and his BA from Yale University, where he was a Sulger Scholar. Zachary is fluent in Spanish.
Hickson, Alex
Alex Hickson, Woodsford, London
Alex is an Investment Officer at Woodsford Litigation Funding. He is an Australian-qualified lawyer with experience in financial services and consumer protection group actions in both Australia and the UK. He worked on a number of high-profile class actions in Australia before making the move to London where he continued to work in Group Litigation. He also has experience in professional negligence, commercial property, defamation and insurance disputes.
Prior to joining Woodsford, Alex worked at class action firms Shine Lawyers in Brisbane and Slater & Gordon Lawyers in London. He has litigated in the Supreme, District and Magistrate Courts of Queensland; the Queensland, New South Wales and Tasmanian Courts of Appeal; the Federal and High Courts of Australia; and the High Court of England and Wales.
Alex completed undergraduate degrees in Law and Arts at the University of Queensland and was admitted as a solicitor to the Queensland Supreme Court and the High Court of Australia in 2015.
Steven Friel is CEO of Woodsford Litigation Funding. He has repeatedly been ranked by independent directories as a leader in the field.
Before joining Woodsford, Steven was a partner in the London office of Brown Rudnick. Prior to joining Brown Rudnick, Steven was a partner in the London office of DAC Beachcroft, and practiced from the London and New York offices of Debevoise & Plimpton.
