Litigation finance firm Longford Capital announced Monday that it is opening an office in Dallas.
The Chicago-based private investment company has hired John Garda, a commercial litigator who has been the managing partner of the Dallas office of K&L Gates, to lead its Texas operations.
“I have become a huge fan of litigation finance,” Garda told The Texas Lawbook in an interview. “The business is absolutely fantastic and growing. My job will be seeking opportunities, evaluating opportunities and then monitoring those opportunities.”
Garda’s last day at K&L Gates will be April 30. He starts at Longford the next day.
While Longford is the first litigation finance firm to open a Dallas office, others have outposts in Houston, including Betham IMF, which opened its Texas operation in 2017, and Validity Finance, which expanded into Houston last year.
Longford co-founder and managing director William Farrell said that the company has invested “tens of millions of dollars” in more than 40 cases involving either Texas companies or Texas lawyers with aggregate damages approaching $1 billion.
Longford focuses on investing in business-to-business litigation involving commercial disputes, breach of contract matters, antitrust and trade regulation issues and intellectual property lawsuits.
“We help lawyers who don’t want to take all the risks in contingency fee cases and help companies that don’t want to fund the entire litigation,” Farrell said. “We’ve resisted expanding from a bricks-and-mortar standpoint, but we have opportunities in Texas and our success in recruiting John after a couple years of trying make snow a good time.
“John has all the skills and experiences and connections in Big Law and with big lawyers,” he said.
Farrell and Garda actually met nearly three decades ago when they were classmates at Notre Dame University Law School.
When Farrell started Longford in 2013, K&L Gates handled some of the private equity firm’s legal matters.
Farrell said there is a misperception that litigation funding is merely a loan.
“Our capital is an investment,” he said. “If the case is lost, Longford absorbs 100% of the loss.”