We all should care who funds the fight for justice
- SCCLR Newsletter
- Dec 17, 2025
- 4 min read
By: LINDSAY LEWIS AND PHIL GOLDBERG
America’s civil justice system has long been the envy of the world. For 250 years, it has been the keystone of our economic and political liberties, providing a forum for individuals and businesses to redress wrongs and resolve disputes.
Today, this public good is at risk. Hedge funds, foreign wealth funds and other investors are transforming American courtrooms into a new capital market.
Rather than stocks or bonds, they are investing billions of dollars in litigation — creating, buying and controlling high-dollar lawsuits for profit, often hidden from judges, litigants and the public. The scale of these investments — called third-party litigation financing — is staggering and growing fast.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, third-party litigation financing assets doubled from 2017 to 2021. Funders now manage more than $16 billion in litigation investments in the United States and are projected to exceed $30 billion by 2028. Those numbers reflect only self-reported data from major players, so the true figure is undoubtedly much higher.
All of this is relatively new. For centuries, legal doctrines barred outsiders from financing lawsuits because it was understood that outside money could corrupt the justice system. Today, however, courts are either unaware of the funding or ignore these principles.
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So, money is pouring into the legal system without any checks and balances. There are no rules to safeguard the integrity of the civil justice system, protect people’s ability to achieve justice or prevent courts and litigants from being manipulated by outsiders — including America’s foreign adversaries.
This is not hyperbole; it is reality. Take mass torts, where thousands of plaintiffs allege harm from a single product. Investors have figured out that they can build lawsuits too big to fail, even when the cases are weak or unsubstantiated. They pay scientists to link a product to a disease, marketers to advertise and recruit clients, and lawyers to file and prosecute cases.
They know that if they generate 20,000 or 50,000 claims, courts cannot adjudge each case on its merits — and companies will often agree to mass settlements to clear their books. Given this leverage, they can force plaintiffs and lawyers to hold out for settlements that prioritize their own return on investment.
This “vendorization of mass torts,” though, undermines rather than facilitates justice. Reports, including one by the federal judiciary, have relayed experiences of judges and lawyers that up to half of the claims in mass torts come from people who cannot show they used the product or have the injury at issue. They simply responded to an advertisement.
Yet, their claims are filed en masse to convince judges, the media and the public that where there is this much smoke, companies should pay to put out the fires. In reality, hidden third-party litigation financing often just builds the smoke machine itself.
Further, in all types of civil litigation, funders — not plaintiffs or lawyers — often call the shots. When investors work through attorneys, as in mass torts, plaintiffs may have no idea that someone else is controlling and profiting from their claims. In other cases, some plaintiffs are waking up to this new reality.
In a high-profile case among agricultural companies, the plaintiff wanted to settle, but its funder refused, prioritizing its financial strategy over the company’s business relationships. The judge condemned the funder’s interference but could not stop it from taking over the case.
Another alarming trend is the growing use of third-party litigation financing by foreign entities and sovereign wealth funds. What’s more, many foreign entities are extracting their third-party litigation financing profits without paying U.S. taxes.
Burford Capital, the largest litigation funder, disclosed an $872 million deal with a foreign sovereign wealth fund — but has not said which one. Mithaq Capital, a Saudi investment firm, already owns a 10 percent stake in Burford. Separately, a United Arab Emirates sovereign wealth fund reportedly holds a 68 percent stake in Fortress Investment Group, another large litigation investor.
There are also growing concerns that foreign actors are using third-party litigation financing to destabilize American competitors and access trade secrets and other types of confidential information disclosed during litigation.
Last year, the Department of Justice’s Foreign Agents Registration Act Unit disclosed that a foreign entity was funding social impact litigation in the U.S. Bloomberg has reported that Chinese and Russian entities are bankrolling lawsuits against U.S. companies.
These developments should concern every American who believes access to justice is an ideal worth defending. The American public and business community must be able to rely on the courts to help them resolve their disputes, fairly and independently. Transparency and accountability are essential.
Courts and litigants should know when outside funders have a stake in a case and whether the funder controls the litigation. Lawyers should owe loyalty to their clients, not financiers. And regulators should ensure that foreign or opaque capital cannot manipulate American courts.
These are not partisan concerns; they are questions of good governance and judicial integrity.
Lindsay Lewis is the chief executive officer of the Progressive Policy Institute. Phil Goldberg is a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute specializing in liability-related matters and also serves as managing partner of the Washington Office of Shook Hardy and Bacon, LLP.
