Lauren Harrison and Mani Walia have clerked for federal appellate judges, practiced at premier law firms and done pioneering work in the world of litigation funding.
This week, the duo launched Signal Peak Partners, a Houston-based investment firm that customizes litigation financing, private credit solutions and monetization options for plaintiffs and their lawyers.
Harrison and Walia plan to focus their fund on commercial and patent litigation matters.
“We are a litigation fund that is run by trial lawyers for trial lawyers,” Walia told The Texas Lawbook in an interview. “We came up in law firms and courtrooms but have the added value of finance experience through managing over $450 million in institutional capital.”
Walia, a former lawyer at Susman Godfrey and managing partner and general counsel of Siltstone Capital, said that now is a good time to launch a new litigation funding firm.
“With the macroeconomic fluctuations we have seen this year in the market, plaintiffs have a particular need for stable and financially secure litigation funders to help them bridge the resources gap inherent in commercial litigation,” said Walia. “In addition, the litigation funding market is poised to offer plaintiffs and their trial lawyers more customized solutions than ever before, including monetization and preservation options.”
Signal Peak leaders said that Hazoor Partners, the largest investor in Walia’s prior Siltstone fund, is an anchor investor of Signal Peak and that the firm has secured commitments of more than $40 million in investment capital with a hard-cap final close of $125 million.
Harrison, who was a litigation partner at Vinson & Elkins and an investment counselor at Law Finance Group, said that Signal Peak “will distinguish ourselves as a funder of complex litigation and will empower trial lawyers and their clients through strategic funding.”
Signal Peak takes its name from the highest natural point in Texas, Harrison said.
Walia, whom the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Houston Chapter and The Lawbook recognized with the 2022 Houston Corporate Counsel Award for Legal Innovation, said Texas is a unique market for litigation financing.
“Houston and perhaps Texas has more litigation boutiques listed on Vault’s Top 20 list than any other state,” he said. “Although we will invest in cases throughout the country and internationally, by virtue of our roots, we expect many cases to be sourced through Texas-based firms. There remains no commercial litigation finance firm based in Houston and only, I think, one other based in Texas. We look forward to providing support to our local trial lawyer colleagues.”
Walia said he credits his mentor, Houston trial lawyer Steve Susman, with starting the first commercial contingency fee practice in Houston, which led many of litigation boutiques to emerge.
“I got into third-party litigation finance because it was an extension of what Steve Susman believed — namely, if you believe in a case, take on calculated risk to help plaintiffs get their day in court and work tirelessly toward a successful outcome,” he said. “It’s as simple and powerful as that, and it’s a strategy that has proven successful for our investors. The resources gap has only deepened in the last 10 years. Cases are too expensive because defendants engage in discovery games to drain the plaintiff’s wallet.”
“We are different because we are not too ‘Wall Street’ nor comprised of institutional finance folks trying to access litigation just for the potential returns,” Walia said. “Our trial lawyer focus is the right approach when the product is lawyer/client/case. Our aim is to be nimble in diligence, solution-oriented in structure and laser-focused on the type of cases that offer the best results.”