Legal Business

Mud sticks to Burford amid intense row but dispute funders’ rise looks assured

‘Throw enough mud at a wall, and some of it will stick,’ the proverb says. But since US investor Muddy Waters published a scathing attack on third-party litigation funder Burford Capital on 7 August, the muck-slinging has not stopped.

The charges in the 25-page report were devastating. Having labelled Burford a ‘poor business masquerading as a good one’, and suggesting the company was ‘already insolvent’, more than £1bn was wiped off the listed funder’s value. Five days later, Burford enlisted Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Morrison & Foerster to pursue claims of illegal market manipulation.