Burford Capital Opens in Singapore

Commitment to Expansion

Quentin Pak joins Burford with 20 years of experience in finance and law. He worked most recently as Head of Commodities (Asia) at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Singapore. Prior to that, he held at senior positions at major global financial institutions such as Barclays, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank. Pak also worked for a few years at Allen & Overy in both London and Singapore. Running Burford’s Singapore office, he will supervise Burford’s expansion in Asia and Australia.

According to Christopher Bogart, Burford’s CEO, “Burford sees significant potential in the Asia-Pacific market following the passage this year of new laws in the region, including Singapore, that support our business.”

Favorable Regulatory Environment

Litigation finance has been developing fast in Hong Kong and Singapore in recent years thanks to the support of legislators, and Burford’s new step follows increased demand for legal capital in the region.

In October 2016, the Hong Kong Law Reform Commission issued a comprehensive report calling for the expansion of the use of litigation finance in Hong Kong. The Commission noted that 97% of the submissions it received on the issue – from essentially every kind of stakeholder in the dispute resolution process – were in favor.

In step with Hong Kong, in November 2016 the Singapore parliament introduced legislation that would permit arbitration finance and laid the groundwork for further expansions, and amendments were enacted in January 2017. Five months later, Burford announced that it had financed the first Singapore-seated arbitration case.

J. Y.