Epiq has acquired Case Pilots, one of the UK’s top claims administration businesses, the company announced Tuesday (8 July).
Epiq is consistently listed as the leading class actions and claims administrator globally and has managed and distributed some of the largest settlements in history.
The New York-headquartered company has been servicing class representatives and law firms in the UK since the Consumer Rights Act was passed in 2015, paving the way for class actions.
Its acquisition of Case Pilots comes amid a surge in class actions in the UK over the past few years, with Eversheds Sutherland reporting late last year there were 53 active collective actions before the Competition Appeal Tribunal with a combined (alleged) damages value in excess of £160bn.
Epiq is the claims administrator for eight class actions currently before the CAT, including the landmark Merricks v Mastercard case, which Epiq has been working on since its launch almost a decade ago. Although a settlement has been approved by the CAT, the funder, Innsworth Capital, launched a judicial review last month.
Case Pilots employees have joined Epiq, including co-founder and CEO Clare Ducksbury, who will now serve as senior vice president, Epiq Class Action Solutions Europe, and co-founder and chief information officer Clinton Smith, who will join Epiq’s product development team in a leadership role.
Epiq noted the Case Pilots team brought a track record of providing strategic consulting advice to law firms tackling the challenges posed by collective actions in the UK and continental Europe.
Nicole Hamann, president of the class action, remediation and mass tort business at Epiq, said the acquisition “marks a significant milestone and reinforces and expands the ability of Epiq to deliver claims management services to clients across the globe by strengthening our foothold in the UK and Europe”.
“The excellent reputations of Clare, Clinton and the Case Pilots team in the UK market is well-earned and we look forward to what we will accomplish together for our clients,” she added.
Epiq has more than 6,000 employees globally and a presence in 19 countries, including in the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Europe.
The company has been ranked first among claims administrators by Institutional Shareholder Services Securities Class Action Services for the last seven years, having administered most of the largest US class actions settlements exceeding a total of $35bn in value.
The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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