Wednesday morning Willkie Farr & Gallagher and litigation funder Longford Capital Management jointly announced a $50 million "funding agreement" that they say is poised "to provide equity capital to fund attorneys' fees and litigation costs, and to monetize the value of meritorious legal claims for Willkie's clients" in business-to-business disputes. Longford also announced that Willkie litigator Craig C. Martin, the firm's Midwest chair, will join its board of independent advisers.

Just how the agreement would play out was a matter of some curiosity, speculation and skepticism within the litigation industry Wednesday. Reactions we heard from the half dozen industry insiders the Litigation Daily spoke with ranged from "meh" to "yeah." Some pointed to similar-sized deals announced abroad and domestic investments hinted at in the securities filings of publicly traded litigation funders. Others, meanwhile, expressed enthusiasm that an Am Law 50 firm would openly tout its relationship with a funder, especially as there's a push on to force disclosure of funder involvement in cases in some venues.

Anthony Sebok, a professor at Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law who serves as an ethics adviser to Burford Capital, said that the deal appeared to formalize the sort of relationship that many law firms have had with funders for some time now.