Litigation finance makes the world go round. The capital financiers provide is the lifeblood for plaintiffs’ firms and individual claimants attempting to run the litigation gauntlet in high-stakes battles with wealthy corporate entities. Third-party litigation funding in general litigation is well documented and frequently discussed. But the role financiers play and the dynamics they create in billion-dollar, mass-tort cases have been overlooked. This exclusion is confusing. Modern mass torts—including those involving Purdue Pharma, Johnson & Johnson, 3M, and Boy Scouts of America—each impact hundreds of thousands of individuals, seizing headlines and driving legal and policy debates.
Most mass-tort financiers are principled actors, content to passively invest in cases and allow claimants and their attorneys to guide outcomes. Hidden among this group is a divergent breed: private equity !rms and multi-strategy hedge funds that I have termed “opaque capital.” A new apex predator has entered the mass-tort ecosystem, and its tactics have been obscured by its ability to strike from the shadows. These puppeteers will never be passive investors. Opaque capital is moving into mass torts to dictate
outcomes.
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