I've had a quick look into Hillcrest and Legalfund. I could find...

I've had a quick look into Hillcrest and Legalfund. I could find little on Legalfund but Hillcrest appears to be a litigation funded... or at least it used to be. I'm not across if there has been problems with these companies but I will take your word that this is the case. It's clearly strange that Hillcrest has acquired a baby formula company. Don't know if this means it's given up litigation funding but I'm not across the history.

One thing to bear in mind is that litigation funding is a fundamentally different business to what Shine does. While both are technically in the legal industry that's where the comparison ends. The litigation funders are basically financial investors in class actions. Essentially they take on the financial risk of a class action in exchange for a percentage of winnings. If a class action succeeds then they get paid, if it fails they loose their investment.

Arguably there are parallels here with the no win no fee model that Shine employs but Hillcrest were not lawyers they were simply people who stump up the funds. As such the business operates by different principals.