High-net-worth individuals may find themselves embroiled in complex legal disputes that require substantial financial resources.
Litigation funding providers are a crucial resource for HNWs who are navigating courtroom battles that demand substantial financial backing, whether those disputes involve large-scale corporate matters or high-stakes divorce proceedings.
Spear’s top-ranked litigation funding providers offer their services to private clients, particularly – though not exclusively – those needing support with the significant costs often associated with divorce cases.
When litigation funders step in to cover divorce-related legal fees, they typically collaborate closely with the legal team representing the financially weaker party. This third-party funding arrangement allows a client to access and afford the necessary legal representation throughout their divorce process, with repayment typically deferred until after the case is resolved.
Before agreeing to fund a case, lenders will carefully evaluate the client’s legal position and overall financial circumstances. They then work in partnership with the client’s solicitor to structure and arrange the necessary funding.
Explore the other rankings within the 2025 Spear’s Family Law Indices:
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- The best family lawyers for high-net worth clients
- The best divorce consultancy & support services
- The best family law barristers for high-net-worth clients
Like in other family law fields, non-court dispute resolution (NCDR) has also seen notable growth in the litigation funding space this year, with providers increasingly supporting private financial dispute resolution and other methods, from mediation to arbitration.
These approaches are not only more cost-effective but can significantly reduce the time spent on legal battles. One adviser featured in our rankings, Max Austin-Little notes that funding should be viewed in terms of the efficiency it brings, streamlining negotiations, cutting unnecessary billable hours and easing the path through complex disputes.
Click the links below to jump to a section of this article:
- Methodology
- The best litigation funding providers: some names to know
- The best litigation funding providers: the complete list
- Contact us
Methodology
Each year, the Spear’s Research Unit reassesses and refreshes its rankings of the leading providers in each sector by gathering data from and about the advisers and firms themselves, assessing submission forms, collating nominations, carrying out peer reviews, reviewing data from third-party sources, gathering references and recommendations, canvassing experts and conducting hundreds of interviews.
Advisers are evaluated using a proprietary scoring system that assigns different weightings to certain attributes. These scores feed directly into each new set of rankings in the Spear’s Indices. Each of these indices are published first online (according to the research calendar) and then in print. Print publication takes the form of the annual Spear’s 500 directory, which includes the top advisers in every index.
[See also: A guide to The Spear’s 500: Everything you need to know]
Each featured adviser is profiled on spears500.com. The site allows users to search the Spear’s database of more than 4,000 entities to find one (or more) to meet their specific requirements by filtering for specific attributes such as an adviser’s location, their specialist expertise and information about their client base.
The best litigation funding providers: some names to know
Max Austin-Little
- Focus: Financial remedy proceedings
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Level
As a director at Level, Max Austin-Little is often a primary point of contact for family lawyers and their clients.
He joined the litigation funding firm in 2019 and now specialises in creating lending solutions for clients facing financial remedy proceedings or contentious private wealth and probate cases. ‘Growth is the main target at the moment, which we’re achieving,’ he tells Spear’s. Indeed, in early 2025 Level secured £105 million in funding to meet rising demand for its services.
Read Max Austin-Little’s full profile on Spears500.com
Susan Dunn
- Focus: Risk sharing
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Harbour Litigation Funding
Harbour co-founder Susan Dunn is at the forefront of litigation funding in the UK. A founding member of the industry’s regulatory body, the Association of Litigation Funders, she has been instrumental in shaping public policy on the matter.
An investor in the funding sector for over 18 years, her litigation and arbitration funding firm Harbour promises ‘certainty in an uncertain world’. Its products fund all or part of legal costs incurred by a claimant (including solicitor’s costs, counsel’s fees, experts and disbursements). It also funds law firms in acquiring new types of cases.
Read Susan Dunn’s full profile on Spears500.com
Christopher Bogart
- Focus: Funding strategy
- Ranking: Top Recommended
- Firm: Burford Capital
Christopher Bogart is the CEO and co-founder of Burford Capital, the company that made headlines in the family law world for supporting the enforcement of Tatiana Akhmedova’s £453 million award in a bitter fight against her ex-husband, which is believed to be among the largest ever divorce settlements in the UK.
Commenting on the case, Bogart said it was an example of how legal finance can help ‘achieve equality in the court’. He wrote: ‘When the rich and powerful believe that those laws are only for the little people and don’t apply to them, our system of laws and order breaks down.’
Read Christopher Bogart’s full profile on Spears500.com
The best litigation funding providers: the complete list
Click on the individual names to be directed to more detailed profiles of each adviser on The Spear’s 500 website. The table is ordered by ranking and then alphabetically by surname.
Contact us
- To apply for inclusion in The Spear’s 500, complete our submission form.
- For further information about rankings, please email research@spearswms.com; we aim to respond to all queries within two working days.
- For commercial enquiries and questions relating to enhanced profiles, please contact Commercial Director Shady Elkholy: shady.elkholy@spearswms.com
- To keep up to date with the Spear’s 500, subscribe to our magazine, newsletter and follow Spear’s on Linkedin and Instagram.
- If you have missed calendar deadlines for our research cycles in 2025, you can still register your interest for updates about upcoming research and rankings.
- Click here to order a print copy of The Spear’s 500.
