Richard Fields likes antitrust cases; so far he likes them to the tune of $79 million. Since late 2007, when he helped establish and float Juridica Capital Management on the London Stock Exchange’s junior market — raising $180 million in the process — Fields has been combing the American litigation market for commercial suits for his fund to invest in. Over the last three years, New York – based Juridica has sunk almost half of that money into five antitrust cases. Ferreting out the right antitrust case — that is, one in which liability has already been admitted — is as close to a sure thing as you can get in litigation financing, he boasts. The risk on liability “is typically very low [in these cases], especially in the United States, where there have been criminal convictions or plea agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice,” adds Fields, a former Dickstein Shapiro partner.
The antitrust cases haven’t produced a return yet. But some of the fund’s other investments have paid off nicely. Juridica generated gross proceeds of $2.4 million from its $1.5 million investment in a patent infringement case that recently settled. The fund also generated total gross proceeds of $24 million on four other cases that settled. The fund’s investment in those four cases was a combined $16.7 million. (Nondisclosure agreements prevent the fund from revealing more about its investments.)
