On 16 October, the prestigious conference on third-party litigation funding in Italy was held at the Palazzo Giurenconsulti in Milan, and LexCapital took part with great enthusiasm.
With a long-standing commitment to the field of legal litigation, LexCapital brought its expertise to the conference alongside leading industry experts, legal professionals and prominent financiers.
The conference aimed to provide an examination of the evolution, opportunities and challenges, operational models and procedural aspects of a tool – litigation funding – that is revolutionising the traditional structure of the justice system, presenting itself as a tool with multiple advantages, chief among them ensuring fairer access to justice and allowing those who assign their litigation rights to protect their rights, without financial risk or commitment, both in the pre-litigation and litigation phases.
Below are the main presentations that featured at the conference, organised by RPLT Law Firm and, as media partner, Italia Oggi.
Why a conference on Third-Party Litigation Funding?
The conference was designed as an opportunity to discuss the experiences and opportunities, within the Italian context, of a complex and sophisticated tool such as litigation funding, in the presence of various experts.
Long established in the Anglo-Saxon world, litigation funding as a tool for resolving legal disputes is also gaining ground in Italy, thanks to the contribution of organisations such as LexCapital, which have decided to use it to facilitate access to litigation.
For a long time, its spread in Italy has been hindered by certain regulatory and legislative aspects, as well as the difficulties, inefficiencies and lengthy delays of the Italian justice system.
The conference presentations focused on specific thematic areas, which highlight some key prerequisites for the use of litigation funding:
- organised data management;
- accurate assessment of litigation costs;
- measurement of litigation risk;
- the various types of contracts.
Conference on Third-Party Litigation Funding: the speakers
During the conference, a number of experts took the floor to share their professional expertise and experience. In particular, during the first panel discussion, which focused on the opportunities and operational aspects of litigation funding in Italy and was expertly moderated by Paolo Grandi, the following speakers took the floor:
Dr Andrea Giovannetti, founder and Chairman of CFO Solutions SCF s.r.l., spoke on the efficient management of data and information, stating that “without the organisation of data, analysis is impossible, and it is precisely this activity that makes the difference in the accurate assessment of a dispute”;
Mr Giovanni Barone, Legal Director at Coca-Cola Europacifics Partners, spoke on the subject of costs, highlighting the positive impact of litigation funding on the cash flow of litigation;
a topic of central importance was discussed by Amedeo della Croce, regarding a possible convergence between legal and economic aspects in the Litigation Funding instrument, emphasising the support offered by Litigation Funders in the management and verification of documents relating to litigation.
The presentations during the conference’s second panel were devoted to the contractual aspects of litigation funding, an engaging round-table discussion skilfully moderated by Luitgard Spogler, featuring experts such as Francesco Ghizzi, Ursula Claravolo, Niccolò Landi, and Alberto Odennino, who provided a detailed analysis of the models and types of policies and services currently available, presenting a number of practical case studies.
Finally, the third panel, skilfully moderated by Nicolò Manzini, focused on the similarities and differences between class actions and litigation funding.
Speakers on the topic included Mr Paolo Florio (Movimento Consumatori), Mr Francesco Marelli (RP Legal & Taxi) and Mr Giovanni Latorre (Chief Legal Officer at LexCapital), who discussed the models for class actions and their potential integration with supporting instruments that have long been present in foreign markets, such as Litigation Funding.
The event served as an important forum for discussion on a new and complex topic such as litigation funding and, more generally, on methods of managing litigation risk, enabling LexCapital to offer a unique perspective and concrete insights on this subject, which is currently undergoing significant adaptation and evolution within the Italian context.