The listed company, which expanded with a US merger during the year, now manages $2.3 billion for legal finance. The company expanded its US offering with the acquisition of Chicago-based investment manager Gerchen Keller Capital for $160 million. The move provided Burford with a 20-strong team in the windy city and a total of 80 people half of which are lawyers.
Good year
Burford made $378 million in new legal investments in 2016 and recovered $216 million in cash from investments - up 48 per cent on the previous year. The firm's annual report said that demand for the company's services was on the up, in litigation and more broadly.
US and UK different approach
According to Burford, the picture on opposite sides of the Atlantic is poles apart. For example, it explained that the number of US private practice lawyers saying their firm has used litigation finance has grown four-fold in four years to 28 per cent, while in the UK only 2 per cent of in-house lawyers had used litigation assets and as many as 67 per cent were unaware it was possible to do so.
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