Originally from Handbook on Third-Party Funding in International Arbitration

1.1.   The TPF Regime in the District of Columbia

1.1.1. Is TPF commonly used in your Jurisdiction? If yes, since when (is it a new trend or a well-established practice)? 

Washington, D.C. is regularly selected as the forum for arbitration of international commercial and investment disputes, particularly investment treaty disputes administered by the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”). Nonetheless, there are no known publications or publicly available statistics identifying how often D.C.-sited arbitrations, or those governed by D.C. laws, are financed by Third Party Funders (“Funders”). For purposes of this State Chapter, we define Funders as natural persons or legal entities who are not party to the dispute and otherwise have no interest in the litigation, but who enter into an agreement (generally called a “litigation funding agreement”) with a party to finance all or part of the costs and fees associated with the arbitration in return for remuneration dependent upon the outcome of the dispute (i.e., non-recourse financing). 

The District of Columbia has become an increasingly important jurisdiction for Funders, parallel to the growth of ICSID cases administered by ICSID and cross-border commercial disputes involving Greater Washington, D.C. area multinational corporations.  

1.1.2. Please shortly describe the TPF market in your Jurisdiction. Is it dominated by local or international Funders, which type of Funders are active, which cases get typically funded? Is there any source on Funders (like the overview published by the German Bar)? 

There is no public source identifying TPF cases sited in D.C. or involving D.C. lawyers. Several Funders active in international arbitrations nationally and internationally maintain offices or personnel in Washington, D.C., including, by way of example only, Burford Capital, Fulbrook Capital Management, Juridica, and Vannin Capital. In addition, representatives from other major funders, such as Calunius Captal, Harbour Litigation Funding, Longford Capital, and Omni Bridgeway regularly attend arbitration conferences held in D.C. or hold themselves out to fund potential cases world-wide that involve D.C. counsel.