According to a report of litigation finance advisory firm Westfleet Advisors, large law firms in the U.S. received a much bigger proportion of the total litigation funding commitments going toward “portfolio” deals in 2021 than in past years. In portfolio deals, litigation funders may provide capital to support several cases, rather than fund a single case.

Some 53% of total law firm portfolio funding commitments were allocated to the 200 largest U.S. law firms by revenue in 2021, up from 9% the prior year. “Historically, that had been much heavier weighted toward smaller firms [and] boutiques,” said Charles Agee, founder of Westfleet Advisors. While it’s hard to know for sure, “the magnitude of the increase, to me, feels more like a trend than some kind of an aberration,” Agee said. He cited an increase in demand for such arrangements within large law firms driven in part by an “increasing comfort level” with litigation finance.

Other figures from the report show continued growth in the litigation finance market. The 47 funders active in the U.S. market had a combined $12.4 billion in assets under management in 2021, up from $11.3 billion the year before. Funders sank $2.8 billion into new deals, compared to $2.5 billion in 2020.