Jules Kroll and Former Kaye Scholer Litigation Chair Start Litigation Funding Firm
Two other co-founders and principals are Earl Doppelt, a former chief legal officer and executive at such companies as Dunn & Bradstreet and the Nielsen Corp., and Jack Blackburn, who previously worked at litigation funder Burford Capital.
October 07, 2019 at 05:04 PM
3 minute read
Investigations firm founder Jules Kroll and former Kaye Scholer litigation chair Aaron Rubinstein have founded a privately held litigation funding firm they have named BlueWhite Legal Capital LLC.
Two other big names in business are also co-founders and principals at the new firm: Earl Doppelt was previously a senior executive and general counsel of several multinational corporations, including The Dun & Bradstreet Corp., The Nielsen Corp. and Walter Energy; and Jack Blackburn previously worked at litigation funder Burford Capital until 2017.
"Litigation finance is a powerful tool that can give companies and law firms a competitive advantage while enhancing efficiency and profitability," Kroll said in a statement. "BlueWhite's team and I have worked to ensure that from day one, we are delivering these advantages with top-of-the-line capabilities, capital to deploy, and a culture of excellence and integrity."
The company has a total asset pool of $150 million backed by hedge fund Magnetar Capital. BlueWhite will invest in an average of $5 million to $15 million commitments, although the firm said there could be some deviation for particularly special investments. Rubinstein said the company plans to deploy the majority of the $150 million within the first year.
BlueWhite will look to invest at any stage in the litigation process in complex commercial litigation matters: antitrust, fraud, M&A and intellectual property, among others. The firm will not invest in personal injury or similar plaintiff-side litigation.
The company's competitive advantage, from their perspective, is its partnership with Kroll's famed investigations firm, K2 Intelligence. Kroll founded his first investigations firm, Kroll Associates, in the 1970s and was instrumental in the development of the corporate investigation industry. Kroll was profiled in a 2009 New Yorker article, and he and his son, Jeremy Kroll, founded K2 that same year.
Using these resources, BlueWhite will be well positioned to provide asset recovery and judgment enforcement services, Rubinstein said.
"Asset recovery and judgment enforcement has become a particular focus of the industry," he said.
Rubinstein also touted the firm's four principals and their relative specialties as a differentiator in the marketplace.
Kroll is a successful business owner and one of the founding fathers of the modern investigation industry; Doppelt's experience as a general counsel gives him insight into the needs of corporate legal departments; Blackburn has extensive experience in the litigation finance space and the financial industry broadly; and Rubinstein spent 12 years as the litigation department head at then-Kaye Scholer.
"When you come to us you get us," Rubinstein said. "That kind of senior experience I think is unique."
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