Litigation financing firm Burford Capital has appointed in-house veteran Mark Klein as its general counsel, according to an announcement Tuesday. Klein will step into the role in Burford's New York office immediately.

“I decided to make the move because of the unique opportunity that coming to Burford afforded,” Klein said in an interview with Corporate Counsel. “It's the perfect marriage of my legal and my finance backgrounds.”

As for what his top priorities as Burford's GC will be, Klein said he'll be focused on “centralizing the legal function and growing as the business grows,” pointing to Burford's recent acquisition of rival litigation funder Gerchen Keller Capital as an example of the company's expansion. “I have the unique opportunity of being the first GC that Burford hired to mesh the different legal functions across the businesses,” Klein said.