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The operating partner for litigation capital

We've seen how litigation capital gets lost.
That's why we know how to protect it.

ATE Legal provides independent assessment, audit and recovery services to litigation funders, insolvency practitioners, administrators and law firms. Our team has run, audited and wound down litigation finance portfolios at scale - we work the parts of this market that pitch decks never show.

Discuss a mandateExplore our services
Enter
Assess
Protect
Defend
Recover

The risk in litigation funding doesn't sit where investors normally look.

Portfolio litigation funding losses rarely come from losing cases. They come from what happens between drawdown and damages: claimant books that never convert as projected, disbursement chains nobody reconciles, law firms that fail with the capital inside them, and ATE policies that respond differently than expected when the worst happens.

Almost everyone a funder meets in this market gets paid when the deal happens. The promoter, the broker, the panel firm. We built ATE Legal to be the other voice - the one with the operating experience to see where capital actually goes, and the independence to say what we find.

Our services follow the life of deployed capital: entering the market, assessing opportunities, protecting live investments, defending positions in dispute, and recovering value when things fail. One team, one standard of evidence, at every stage.

Services

From first look to final recovery.

Each service stands alone. Together they follow the full life of litigation capital.

EnterFor new capital entering the UK market

Market entry & operational management

For investors entering UK litigation funding, we provide both the way in and the means to stay protected: origination through a network built over two decades, and - once capital is deployed - the operating platform that safeguards it. Panel accreditation, controlled drawdowns, live monitoring and audit, so your operations are regulator-ready before regulation arrives.

  • Opportunity sourcing and qualification through our established market network
  • Panel building: law firms accredited against agreed standards - and re-tested for as long as they hold funding
  • Day-to-day operational management: milestone drawdowns, portfolio monitoring and reporting, file audit, intervention
AssessFor funders & investors evaluating opportunities

Scheme assessment

Independent appraisal of litigation funding schemes before you commit capital - or due diligence spend. We assess the paper and the people: the claimant economics behind the projections, the regulatory scenarios that could displace the model, the litigation assumptions buried in cohort maths, and the track record of the operators behind the scheme.

  • Rapid preliminary review - designed to kill bad opportunities cheaply, before full due diligence begins
  • Full deep-dive assessment written for your Investment Committee, with an evidenced go / conditional / walk-away recommendation
  • Fixed fee. No success fee. No stake in whether you invest
ProtectFor funders with deployed capital

Audit of firms, portfolios & cases

Independent audit of the law firms and case portfolios your capital sits inside. Funders typically rely on the borrower's own reporting; we test what firms report against what the files actually show - case by case, cohort by cohort - so problems surface while capital is still recoverable.

  • Pre-investment audits before capital is committed to a firm or book
  • Routine assurance audits - file quality, case progression, WIP integrity, drawdown discipline
  • Reconciliation of actual case status across the book - ongoing, won, lost or abandoned
  • Triggered audits when MI indicates thresholds are breached
  • Pre-enforcement audits that give you the evidence base before you act
DefendFor law firms & funders in ATE disputes

ATE insurer dispute support

When an ATE insurer declines, avoids or disputes a policy, the insured faces a double loss - potential adverse costs exposure on top of a failed investment. Our team includes people who spent years inside ATE insurers building the very products now in dispute, and people who have run insurer disputes from the policyholder side at portfolio scale.

  • Early, commercially-minded appraisal of your realistic prospects - before major legal spend
  • Strategy informed by insider knowledge of how insurers construct coverage decisions
  • Evidence collation and case substantiation in support of your claims
RecoverFor insolvency practitioners & administrators

Administration, insolvency & recovery consulting

When a claimant law firm or litigation funder fails, the portfolio is usually the estate's principal asset - and the one conventional valuation is least equipped to price. We give office-holders an independent, evidence-based read of the book, then a realisation strategy built to maximise recoveries and withstand creditor and regulatory scrutiny.

  • Rapid book triage: data ingestion, cohort stratification, immediate value-destruction risks
  • Detailed appraisal: realistic case-success and settlement values grounded in the files, disbursement-chain reconciliation, security analysis
  • Assessment of ATE coverage across the book
  • Realisation planning and execution support - whole-book sale, sale by cohort, run-off or transfer - liaising where necessary with relevant regulatory bodies
Independence

Our independence is the product.

Assessment and audit work is only worth what its independence is worth. These are the rules we operate by - in writing, disclosed at every engagement.

No success fees on assessment

Scheme assessments and audits are fixed-fee. We are paid the same whether our answer is go or walk away - and our track record includes advising clients to do nothing.

Disclosure at engagement

Any relationship we hold with a funder, creditor, insurer or prospective acquirer connected to a mandate is disclosed in writing before we accept it.

We decline conflicted work

Where a conflict cannot be managed to our client's satisfaction, we turn the mandate down. A smaller practice with intact independence is worth more than the alternative.

The team

Two careers. Both sides of the table.

ATE Legal is led by two principals whose careers cover the operating, capital and insurance sides of the UK litigation market - having seen what has worked well, and what hasn't.

Principal - Capital, Governance & Analytics

David Gerard

David is a senior financial services leader whose career spans HSBC, Metro Bank and Close Brothers Group across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. As Commercial Director and Board member of a Close Brothers litigation finance business, he devised and executed the run-down of a c. £260m book of 30,000 litigation funding loans - building the cohort-level portfolio analytics, financial models and recovery strategies that protected value through to closure, and contributing directly to ATE insurer dispute litigation.

He has held FCA senior management functions in both compliance and commercial leadership, giving him an institutional-grade command of governance, regulatory engagement and financial modelling - the disciplines that make our work defensible in boardrooms, creditor reports and court.

Principal - ATE, Funding & Market

Anthony Berry

Anthony is the Founder of ATE Legal and a highly respected litigation funding specialist with over 20 years' experience across legal services, insurance and litigation finance. Holding SMF29 approval, he combines regulatory expertise with deep knowledge of the litigation funding market and a thorough understanding of how claims are funded, insured and managed. Having held roles with Novitas Loans, AxiaFunder, ARAG and Allianz,

Anthony has built an extensive network of relationships across law firms, litigation funders, ATE insurers and claims management companies. Recognised for his market knowledge, commercial insight and ability to connect the right stakeholders, he is a trusted adviser to organisations seeking innovative funding and insurance solutions within the litigation sector.

“

ATE Legal brings deep market knowledge, a professional approach, and rigorous attention to detail. Their audits are thorough, insightful, and consistently delivered to a high standard, making them a trusted and reliable partner.Litigation Funder

Insights

What we're seeing in the market.

Recent analysis from across the litigation funding market.

SSB Law: the adverse costs scandal six litigation funders learned too late
Insolvency & Recovery

SSB Law: the adverse costs scandal six litigation funders learned too late

Read the article →
Novitas and the fight over ATE cover: what a five-year wind-down teaches about deeds of indemnity
ATE Disputes

Novitas and the fight over ATE cover: what a five-year wind-down teaches about deeds of indemnity

Read the article →
McDermott Smith: the second collapse nobody was watching as closely
Insolvency & Recovery

McDermott Smith: the second collapse nobody was watching as closely

Read the article →
View all insights →
Contact

Start with a confidential conversation.

Whether you hold a live concern or simply want to know this capability exists before you need it - we'd welcome the discussion. No live situation required.

Enquiries are treated in strict confidence.

ATE Legal© 2026 ATE Legal Ltd. All rights reserved.

ATE Legal Ltd · Registered in England and Wales, no. 13752502 · Registered office: 1 Lime Close, Prestbury, GL52 3EF

ATE Legal Ltd provides operational and commercial assessment, audit and consulting services. It does not provide legal advice, investment advice, insolvency advice or regulated claims management services, and nothing on this website constitutes such advice. ATE Legal Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. References to team members' experience in FCA-regulated firms describe prior and concurrent roles held personally and do not imply that ATE Legal Ltd is itself regulated.