If you Litigate, be Commercial: Litigation Funding and Risk Mitigation

David Phillips, Senior Associate, Simons Muirhead Burton, United Kingdom

A contact, a senior in-house lawyer for a multi-national software and hardware firm, said his days were regularly punctuated with calls from members of the sales team asking whether they could dispense with one or more clauses in the firm’s standard terms and conditions. That was usually in order to, ’secure the major deal as the customer won’t agree to purchase including that clause”. The usual reply given was that: - • it was a commercial rather than a legal issue, so the sales- person would have to take responsibility for a commercial decision; • the standard clauses were necessary to protect the interests of the firm and if the sales person wanted to delete a standard clause then so be it,

David is an commercial litigator with broad experience in complex and high value case management in the High Court and various arbitration jurisdictions. Having also worked at a litigation funder he also has a deep understanding of alternative funding and insurance.

With 50 years’ experience, SMB are a full-service law firm located in Central London and are highly regarded in the legal community as leaders in our field. Highly ranked in the main legal directories, no other firm of our size in the UK is ranked across as many practice areas nor their individuals so broadly recognised for their work.