INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
IN CONVERSATION WITH ROSEMARY IOANNOU 29
IN CONVERS AT ION WI TH ROSEMARY IOANNOU SENIOR COUNSEL AT VANNIN C AP I TAL Keith Hutchison, Partner at Clyde & Co, in conversation with Rosemary Ioannou, Senior Counsel at Vannin Capital.
KE I TH I understand that youwere in private practice for a number of years before joining Vannin Capital as Senior Counsel. Can you explain howyoumade the jump fromprivate practice to a funder? ROSEMARY I was in private practice as a litigator at aMagic Circle firm for ten years working with large corporates and banks, mainly on corporate and banking disputes, across the globe. I had a great experience and really enjoyed the cut and thrust of litigation, but after ten years I was looking for a change of direction. The role at Vannin came up and they were looking for an experienced litigator. It was a perfect fit for me; both the role and the organisation. In terms of the role, it’s a perfect 50/50 split between business development and marketing (developing the Vannin brand and educating people about third-party funding) and the due diligence side. The latter includes case review, looking at the cases and kicking the tyres hard to investigate the strength of the claims that are presented to us. So I still get to do the cut and thrust of litigation (which I verymuch enjoy) while leaving the very hard and heavy lifting to you guys in private practice. KE I TH Thank you, we are happy to do it. So what is the process when a potential case lands on your desk? ROSEMARY At Vannin, we think it’s very important for the law firms and clients we are working with to have a good relationshipwith the people at the funder handling their cases. This is the reason I have a dual role of business development andmarketing along with internal due diligence and case review. When a case comes intome through a law firm like Clyde&Co or directly froma claimant, I will ask the law firmor claimant to submit the key documents that are fundamental for us to be able to review that case.
We look very closely at a variety of things including the quantum of the case; the jurisdiction; governing law; any enforcement risks andwho the defendant may be. I will do a detailed internal review of the claim to establish the strengths andmerits of the case. From there, we will hopefully be in a position to issue terms to the claimant onwhichwe would be prepared to fund the case. If the claimant agrees to our terms we will seek an external opinion to verify our own internal analysis. Our initial due diligence is always conducted in-house. We think that it is an important relationship that Vannin has with firms withwhich it works, and the claimants. We find that the way we are structured, with the one point of contact throughout the case, is important to enable continuity of legal analysis, for speed of decisionmaking at our end and for everybody to work together in the best interests of the claimant. KE I TH The investment side of Vannin is private equity funded. Howdoes that make a difference for Vannin in terms of your decisionmaking? ROSEMARY I think it helps in two respects. The first is, because we’re private equity funded, we don’t have strict investment guidelines or parameters that we have to adhere to. That means we are very open to discussions with law firms and their clients about awhole plethora of cases across jurisdictions, and different funding structures that may be put in place. Not only canwe be openminded froma legal point of view, we can also be openminded froma commercial point of view. The terms wemay be able to offer can be structured
in very innovative ways that work for the claimant. Secondly, it helps with response times. The biggest
complaint I have heard about our industry is that it can take a long time to reach a funding decision. In reality, it only takes a long time if the due diligence process at the funder takes longer than necessary.
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