Something that I don't think was factored enough in to all the...

Something that I don't think was factored enough in to all the analysis that has been going on with WIP is that, for CA at least, the WIP is contractually assured by the litigation funder. So firms like IMF are bound by law to pay out the fees for lawyers and disbursements even in the case of Shine losing. There may be an extra incentive payment or bonus of course but what percentage this is exactly is a commercial secret.


So how much WIP is there locked up in CA at the moment? I'm not sure at all as we don't have the numbers. What we do know as fact however is the following:

- CA demand in Aus is at a all time high and is a growth area for shine and the industry as a whole.
- Emerging practice revenue, as a percentage of all of shines revenue, a significant part of which is CA and hence guaranteed WIP is growing rapidly over the last few years (see graph)
- Shine is in a excellent position, along with only a few other firms, to capitalize on their brand and advertising advantage, as well as their size and and reputation in securing litigation funding for further class actions.


As and anecdote I was looking into the CA against shj recently. Apparently you can pretend to sign up on a website and this gives you preliminary access to part of a contract with Quinn Emanuel. Let's just say after a brief reading the fees are pretty amazing in these cases. I saw a figure of 800$ an hour for CA lawyers, and this was just a base rate without including any other overheads or disbursements. Quite interesting..