The 2026 Lawdragon 100 Global Leaders in Litigation Finance

We’re honored to introduce The 2026 Lawdragon 100 Global Leaders in Litigation Finance.       

This is our 7^th guide dedicated to litigation finance – the booming field of providing money to lawyers and law firms. What could possibly go wrong?

This group of legal risk aficionados are the best in the world at assessing the potential of attaining a successful outcome in a dispute and monetizing it. They provide desperately needed funds for meritorious claims that would never make it through the litigation crucible otherwise. They envision and create innovative insurance products and assemble deals that allow law firms a path forward. They advocate for their industry against critics, well-meaning and otherwise, to support access to justice as well as outsized returns to their organizations.

William Marra of Certum Group brought a platinum-plated perspective when he joined the field of litigation finance in 2019. He spent time at Bain & Co., in federal court clerkships including for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. and four years at Washington, D.C.’s Cooper & Kirk. He joined a fledgling Validity Finance, where he learned to assess legal claims as assets and create pathways forward to pay lawyers to win strong cases. He joined Certum in 2023 and leads its litigation finance strategy, evolving next-generation risk-transfer solutions combining litigation finance and insurance. He also teaches at The University of Pennsylvania Law School and advocates and writes on the importance of litigation funding in the modern legal profession.

Ronit Cohen founded and is managing director of New York-based Arcadia Finance. An early convert to the litigation funding field, she started her career as an associate at Simpson Thacher and O’Melveny before joining the litigation funding industry in 2012 at Bentham, IMF, now Omni Bridgeway. She launched the firm’s first U.S. office then moved to Validity, where she worked in risk monitoring. She also headed a pro bono effort to provide funding to wrongly accused individuals during their legal matters. At Arcadia, she oversees “frictionless funding.” She reviews thousands of potential cases, oversees underwriting and in her career has funded approximately 50 matters as single client-side cases and law firm portfolios.

Joseph Dunn is a managing director at Fortress Investment Group and Global Co-head of Fortress’ Legal Assets business. Before joining Fortress in 2016, he was a securities litigator at Boies Schiller and Dontzin Nagy. He focuses on litigation and legal process related debt and structured equity transactions, including serving on the Investment Committee of the Fortress Legal Assets Fund. Fortress is among the leading and most-respected players in the industry with $6.8B in commitments ranging from mass tort to patent litigation.

These honorees represent an industry that has evolved through bumpy nascent years to be part of the playbook for many law firms and significant disputes. This past year saw a significant number of changes in litigation financiers with a number of them essentially closing or diminished and others, including industry leaders, facing significant financial peril.

They are also facing renewed calls for disclosure and transparency from courts and legislatures. There is no doubt the industry will endure and emerge stronger than ever, but the next year is expected to be challenging. And, of course, there are new entrants to the field seemingly every week.

We created this guide through our proprietary process of journalistic research, vetting with peers and experts and an increasing number of submissions through our simple online portal. Those marked with an asterisk are members of our Hall of Fame.