The Days of Third-party Funding Has Arrived: Panel@BW Legal Summit

In a panel discussion at BW Global Legal Summit 2019, Manoj Kumar, Founder & Managing Partner, Hammurabi & Solomon; Dhruv Chawla, Senior Associate, Kuldeep Rai Chawla & Co; and Sumes Dewan, Managing Partner, Lex Favios discussed the pressing issues of third party funding, branding and marketing of legal services. Alishan Naqvee, Partner, Lexcounsel moderated the panel. 

Describing the scenario of crowd-funding, Manoj Kumar of Hammurabi & Solomon, a full-service law firm, said in India, wherever third-party funding worked, it is because whoever was funding was able to align to the legal process. "In all these, courts are very conservative about the damages,' said Kumar. He also clearly stated that the days of third-party funding have arrived and as lawyers, they are committed to third-party funding. 

What is third-party funding? Third-party funding is defined to be an arrangement between a specialist funding company and a client in exchange for an agreed return. 

Dhruv Chawla of Kuldeep Rai Chawla & Co, a top company in the category lawyers, emphasised that there are both pros and cons to the third-party funding. "In India the topic is still a grey area – whether it is legal or not; what aspects are legal and whatnot, is still a matter of discussion," said Chawla. 

Sumen Dewan of  Lex Favios, a full-service law firm with offices in Delhi and Mumbai spoke on the topic of branding and marketing of legal services. He said it was crucial to showcase the work because that brought more clients and hence more business. “We already have 30-40 global journals and every firm is allowed to showcase their work,” he added. 

Chawla giving his perspective on the branding stated that how his firm went about branding their legal services. After all it is the name /goodwill that goes around. Kumar said that it was important to get into the mind space of the clients – that would bring continuous communication with them.