Legalist closed a $415 million fund dedicated to backing lawsuits, the tech-powered litigation funder said Tuesday.
California-based Legalist’s fourth and largest fund deepens its investment in commercial legal assets, continuing to focus on single cases and portfolios. The funder also nearly doubled its assets under management in the past year, now managing $2 billion across all of its strategies.
“When we launched in litigation finance, we were very much a niche underdog, and I like to think that we have preserved that status over the years, even though we’ve grown and our strategy has grown as well,” said Legalist co-founder and general partner Eva Shang.
The company, which has around 40 full-time employees and also operates a $500 million government receivables fund aimed at contractors, is celebrating 10 years in the litigation finance space. After dropping out of Harvard, Shang co-founded Legalist in 2016 with the help of a $100,000 grant from billionaire Peter Thiel’s foundation. She passed the bar exam following four years of an apprentice-style legal education—called “reading the law”—and is now also a licensed attorney.
Legalist specializes in funding low- to mid-range value cases ranging from $50,000 to $5 million in investment, which Shang says have fewer issues with lengthy case durations. Its prior fund was $300 million and had more than 250 positions in single and portfolio cases. The company’s book right now is nearly a 50/50 split between single cases and portfolios.
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