Hedar: New role at funder as well as continuing at law firm
A new group bringing together businesses that fund, litigate, insure and recruit clients, especially to class actions, has been unveiled.
Legatus Holdings is owned by Ian Madej, who was chief executive of funder Asertis, one-time DLA lawyer Philip Holden, who was Asertis’s general counsel, and Andrew Nugent Smith, the managing partner of class action firm KP Law.
Third-party institutional investors hold a minority stake in the business as well.
KP Law was created last March by the merger of Keller Postman – which Asertis had acquired two months earlier after exercising a call option – and Lanier Longstaff Hedar & Roberts.
Legatus is made up of Asertis, KP Law and newly established companies, Toremis Specialty, an insurance managing general agent specialising in after-the-event insurance, tax and contingent insurance products, and Cavis, an in-house claimant acquisition vehicle to assist with group action claimant bookbuilding.
The group’s long-term growth strategy is to “provide the full suite of services critical for launching, managing, underwriting and litigating legal claims assets, both in England & Wales and internationally”.
The individual companies will continue to work with other law firms – we reported last week that an opt-out collective action funded by Asertis to the tune of £17m had become the first to be refused certification outright by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
Mr Holden, who is now chief executive of Legatus, said: “We have created a unique and compelling vertically integrated group, where each operating business is led by market-leading professionals with established pedigree in their respective fields.”
Mr Madej is the group’s chief commercial officer, while Craig Hawthorne has joined from Arrow Global – one of Asertis’s backers – as group chief investment officer.
Barrister Duncan Hedar – who came from the LLHR side of last year’s merger – has taken over as chief executive of Asertis but will also remain KP Law’s head of competition law.
Mr Nugent Smith, who had been Keller Postman’s managing partner, will continue to lead KP Law, while underwriter Nathan Hull has been brought in to run Toremis Specialty and Neil Gee, “an experienced claims aggregator”, to be chief executive of Cavis.
Asertis is funded by European alternative asset manager Arrow Global, which has €110bn of assets under management, and funds managed by AB CarVal, a global alternative investment manager with more than $19bn under management.
