Eva Shang, the co-founder and CEO of Legalist, a tech enabled investment firm specialising in litigation assets, based out in San Francisco. Eva started the company after dropping out of Harvard at the age of nineteen and has since built Legalist into a notable player in the alternative credit space. At the time of this recording in October 2024, Legalist was in the process of raising for their fourth fund and their previous funds have shown a strong track record.
Legalist focuses on three key areas, litigation finance, government account receivable factoring, and debtor-in-possession credit lines and bankruptcy cases. It’s a niche corner of the market and a unique take on deep value investing. In this episode we discuss: what Legalist does and how investors should approach litigation finance as an asset class; the decision making choice behind Eva’s decision to leave Harvard and start her own business; the challenges of patent litigation and why it’s so different from commercial cases; and finally, how investors evaluate litigation finance, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with the American court system.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify.