Lawyer Monthly - Women In Law Special Edition

LAWYER MONTHLY WOMEN IN LAW EDITION 16 are ambitious, and they enter an environment where they are expected to work long hours with little promise of partnership. Bringing in clients is still very much the basis for success in most law firms, and receiving origination credit leads to advancement to leadership positions and longer-term payoffs, such as equity partnership. Unfortunately, women currently get far less origination credit than men. Those who bill the most or work the longest hours with the biggest clients are naturally rewarded, leaving little room for leave or career gaps. Furthermore, there are few women partners who can help mentor and guide younger lawyers through the intentionally opaque partnership process. For the almost half of associates who are women, it must feel like the cards are stacked against them from the start. Given the reality of a culture defined by competition, we need to equip women lawyers to be more competitive, and simultaneously, to look at ways in which the business of law can benefit from a more collaborative and diverse culture. To help women lawyers be more competitive in pursuing the kinds of new business opportunities that will help them build books of business and amass power at law firms — as well as face down potential bias when taking on potentially risky new matters — Burford in late 2018 launched The Equity Project, an innovative approach to closing the gender gap in law. With The Equity Project, Burford earmarked $50 million to finance commercial matters led by women lawyers, where the litigation or arbitration has a woman as lead partner, client relationship manager or originator, or where the case is run by a women-owned firm. Financing from The Equity Project shifts risk from the law firm or client to Burford, thereby enabling women lawyers to be more competitive in new business situations. With capital from The Equity Project, women litigators and women-owned firms can pitch clients knowing that they can offer attractive alternative fee arrangements. A female lawyer can show a client it’s possible to fund their litigation without adding pressure to their balance sheet. She can use litigation financing to convince her firm’s contingency fee committee to move forward with a case she might otherwise not bring to the committee. Litigation financing can help a litigator demonstrate that she’s an innovative thinker and that she’s aggressive and ambitious about landing new clients and serving them well. An in-house lawyer can use Equity Project capital to motivate her law firm to promote women partners to lead her matters, and simultaneously generate recovery revenue that demonstrates her financial shrewdness and leadership ability. Law firms committed to gender diversity can share risks and encourage other female litigators to pitch client-friendly alternative billing arrangements to their management committees for new business. Women can pursue leadership positions in significant matters and ease pathways towards origination and client relationship credit with a competitive edge for them and their firms. In a competitive industry, financial incentives work. Having launched The Equity Project in October, at the time of writing, Burford has in its investment pipeline over $35 million worth of suitable matters against the initial pool of $50 million. Although we won’t fund all of the matters we consider, the response has been overwhelmingly positive with significant opportunities from women new to Burford. Our Equity Project Champions have also Given the reality of a culture defined by competition, we need to equip women lawyers to be more competitive, and simultaneously, to look at ways in which the business of law can benefit from a more collaborative and diverse culture. “ “