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Litigation Finance in the Asia-Pacific Market

TownCenter Partner Team , , , , , , , ,

As litigation finance continues to gain traction all over the world this blog post focuses specifically on the industry’s growth and development in the Asia-Pacific region.

Singapore: In March 2017, Singapore’s Civil Law Act went into effect, abolishing champerty and maintenance and officially permitting the use of third party funding in arbitration.  While right now the act only permits third party funding in arbitration, it lays the groundwork to expand it into other types of dispute resolution. With the new act allowing third party funding in arbitration, Singapore is seen as the leading seat of arbitration in Asia.

Hong Kong: In June, Hong Kong followed in Singapore’s footsteps and passed an amendment allowing third party funding in arbitration under Hong Kong law once the act is implemented.  The act was not implemented immediately as there was no regulatory framework to support such an act.  However, this is a step towards Hong Kong competition with other prominent jurisdictions to be a cost-effective seat of arbitration in the future.

Korea & Japan: While the main focus has been on legal reform in Singapore and Hong Kong recently there is a trend towards more established corporations in Korea & Japan seeking forms of legal finance.  Many companies are asking about portfolio-based legal finance to help relieve legal budget pressures and its potentially negative effect on share price.

All of these new developments point towards growing legal markets and particularly litigation finance industries in this area.  While right now legal finance is mainly used in the arbitration context, I doubt it will be much longer before we see it expanding even more into other forms of dispute resolution to help both individuals and companies.

Topics:  litigation finance, alternative litigation finance, third party funding, Asia, Asia-Pacific, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan

Works Cited: 

James MacKinnon, Legal Finance Market Focus: Asia-Pacific, Burford Capital (February 13, 2018).

TownCenter Partner Team

TownCenter Partners, LLC lead Asset Manager is Mr. Roni A. Elias. From modest beginnings, and with the help of a hand-picked dream team of professionals we have built one of the most dynamic and fastest growing companies in the country. TownCenter Partners LLC(TCP) is a real estate partner and master-planner providing development, leasing, management, and third party services. The company’s demonstrated ability to apply big ideas in creative and innovative ways has played a defining role in the firm’s success. Yet, TCP's most important insight has been the core understanding that it is not sight lines or site plans, but human activity, that defines a space and creates a place.