BURFORD CAPITAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President
- Senior Vice President / Chicago
Alyx Pattison is a Senior Vice President with responsibility for originating new business with law firms and companies in the US. Ms. Pattison has an extensive background in both law and politics, including more than a decade as a litigator at AmLaw 100 law firms.
Ms. Pattison was a partner in the litigation departments of Akerman and Katten, where she focused on defense of publicly traded companies in securities class actions, M&A litigation and shareholder derivative suits. Immediately prior to joining Burford, Ms. Pattison was the President of a political consulting business she founded with a focus on providing legal and FEC compliance advice to state, local and congressional campaigns. Ms. Pattison has been actively involved with the legal community's efforts to address women's leadership and diversity.
Ms. Pattison graduated from Northwestern University School of Law and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Utah.
Job Titles:
- Corporate Counsel / New York
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President / London
Andrew Bodnar is Vice President with responsibility for assessing and underwriting legal risk at Burford.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Bodnar was a barrister at Matrix Chambers, where he specialized in all areas of asset recovery, both criminal and civil, as well as corruption and recovery, corporate criminal liability, civil and criminal fraud, market manipulation and abuse, and money laundering. He has extensive experience of proceedings at all levels from first instance to the House of Lords/Supreme Court concerning the legislation governing the proceeds of crime, as well as years of experience in substantial civil asset recovery cases in the UK and elsewhere.
He is an editor and contributing author to an Oxford University Press publication on asset recovery, and in practice was recommended by Chambers and Partners, the Legal 500 and Who's Who Legal Global. Mr. Bodnar has a working knowledge of French, German and Hungarian.
Mr. Bodnar has degrees from King's College London and the University of Westminster. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Lincoln's Inn.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director / New York
Andrew Cohen is a Director with responsibility for assessing and underwriting legal risk as well as for monitoring policy and regulatory issues in the legal finance industry.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Cohen was a litigator at Debevoise & Plimpton, where he specialized in litigation and regulatory matters involving financial institutions and complex financial products, as well as IP matters relating to trademark disputes. He regularly represented financial institutions and public companies before state Attorneys General, the SEC and the DOJ in investigations into complex securities including auction rate securities and MBS, accounting issues and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations.
Mr. Cohen graduated from Columbia Law School, where he was a Stone Scholar and an editor of the Law Review.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / Washington
Job Titles:
- Co - Chief Operating Officer
- Co - Chief Operating Officer / New York
- Co - Chief Operating Officer With Overall Responsibility for Burford
Aviva Will is Co-Chief Operating Officer with overall responsibility for Burford's global marketing, origination and underwriting activities, and a member of Burford's Management and Commitments Committees. In her role at Burford, Ms. Will has overseen the continuing innovation of its offerings to law firms and companies and has been instrumental in building the industry's most respected legal finance team and process.
At Burford, Ms. Will developed and launched The Equity Project, a groundbreaking initiative designed to help increase diversity in law by providing an economic incentive for change through a $100 million pool of capital earmarked for financing commercial litigation matters led by women and racially diverse lawyers who have been historically underrepresented in the field. As part of The Equity Project, Ms. Will recruited over 25 lawyers from the world's leading law firms and corporations to be Champions in promoting the availability of this capital to incentivize change.
Prior to joining Burford in 2010, Ms. Will was a senior litigation manager and Assistant General Counsel at Time Warner Inc., where she managed a portfolio of significant antitrust, intellectual property and complex commercial litigation. She was also Time Warner's chief antitrust and regulatory counsel, advising senior management on antitrust risk and overseeing all antitrust litigation, government antitrust investigations and merger clearances worldwide. Ms. Will also served as the Assistant Secretary for the company, managing corporate compliance and governance for the company and Board. Prior to joining Time Warner, Ms. Will was a senior litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
Ms. Will graduated cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, where she was the Writing & Research Editor of the Fordham Law Review and a member of the Order of the Coif. She earned an undergraduate degree from Columbia University. She was a law clerk to the Honorable Stewart G. Pollock on the New Jersey Supreme Court.
Job Titles:
- Quantitative Investment Analyst / London
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President / New York
Charles Griffin is a Vice President with responsibility for evaluating and executing new investment opportunities and overseeing investments in Burford's portfolio. He is part of Burford's litigation finance team and is based in New York.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Griffin worked as a litigator at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he represented companies in the financial, retail and entertainment industries in complex commercial litigation. He previously clerked for the Honorable Debra Ann Livingston (Second Circuit) and the Honorable Alison J. Nathan (Southern District of New York). Before law school, he worked as an Analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Mr. Griffin earned his law degree from Harvard Law School and his Bachelor's in Social Studies from Harvard College.
Job Titles:
- Chief Accounting Officer
- Chief Accounting Officer / New York
- Chief Accounting Officer With Responsibility for Burford
Charles Utley is Chief Accounting Officer with responsibility for Burford's accounting policy and financial reporting. Mr. Utley brings over 20 years of experience in the interpretation and application of accounting standards within the financial sector.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Utley was a Managing Director at Barclays, where he spent 11 years in a variety of senior accounting roles. He led the technical accounting and product control teams at Barclays, overseeing the firm's legacy assets that were impacted by the financial crisis, including structured products, private equity and real estate. Before Barclays, Mr. Utley spent eight years at PwC, rising to the level of Director, with a particular focus on the development and implementation of commercial solutions to complex accounting issues arising from the development of new products or the adoption of new accounting standards.
Mr. Utley earned his degree from the Bradford University School of Management and is a qualified Chartered Accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / New York
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President
- Senior Vice President / London
Christiane Deniger is a Senior Vice President with responsibility for assessing and underwriting legal risk as part of Burford's investment team as well as for originating non-US investments. She is also a contributing author to various publications on international arbitration and third-party financing. A native French speaker, she is fluent in English and Italian and has a working knowledge of Spanish.
Prior to joining Burford, Ms. Deniger was a Senior Case Assessor and Principal at Calunius Capital, where she was responsible for assessing the merits of providing finance for large international arbitration and litigation disputes and competition claims and for developing the transactional structures involved in each investment. Before Calunius, Ms. Deniger was a Senior Associate in the international arbitration and dispute resolution department at Fried Frank, where she focused on international arbitration and regulatory, fraud and white-collar crime investigations. Ms. Deniger began her career as an Associate at Dewey & LeBoeuf.
Ms. Deniger graduated from the University of Law in London and has a joint honors LLB from the University of Durham.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Co - Founder
- Director
- Burford 's CEO
- Independent Non - Executive Directors
- Member of the Board of Advisors of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice
Burford's CEO Christopher Bogart and CIO Jonathan Molot met at a RAND conference in 2009 and discovered a shared interest in developing new ways for companies and law firms to manage the cost of high-stakes commercial disputes. As Time Warner's former general counsel, Chris had crafted the $35 million fee paid to Cravath for its work on the AOL/Time Warner merger-then the largest corporate contingency fee in history. As a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, Jon had investigated market solutions to address the impact of unequal financial resources on litigation outcomes.
Mr. Bogart is a member of the Board of Advisors of the RAND Institute for Civil Justice, a Director of the International Legal Finance Association, a member of the Board of Trustees of Hackley School, Chairman of the Zoning Board of Appeals of Briarcliff Manor, New York, and a member of the Board of Advisors of New York City's Legal Aid Society.
Christopher Bogart is Chief Executive Officer, a director and a co-founder of Burford, and he also serves as a member of its Management and Commitments Committees. Under Mr. Bogart's leadership, Burford has become the largest global provider of legal finance and a force in the global legal market.
Before co-founding Burford, Mr. Bogart held numerous senior executive positions with Time Warner. As Executive Vice President & General Counsel of Time Warner Inc., he managed one of the largest legal functions in the world. He also served as Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner Cable Ventures and one of four senior executives operating Time Warner Cable, with $9 billion in revenue and 30,000 employees, and as Chief Executive Officer of Time Warner Entertainment Ventures.
Job Titles:
- Chief Valuation Officer
- Chief Valuation Officer / New York
Christopher Catalano is Chief Valuation Officer, with responsibility for approving modeling on Burford's new investments, advising on the fair value of Burford's investments, and overseeing Burford's portfolio.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Catalano was a Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at JPMorgan Chase, where he managed class actions and investigations involving the mortgage bank. Before that, Mr. Catalano spent over 15 years litigating class actions and other complex commercial cases in the financial services, healthcare, technology, consumer-product and other industries at O'Melveny & Myers, Kirkland & Ellis and Wilson Sonsini.
Mr. Catalano graduated from the University of Chicago Law School and has an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director / Chicago
Christopher Dore is a Director with responsibility for overseeing Burford's underwriting of and investment activity in nationwide consolidated litigation and other complex commercial matters. Mr. Dore focuses on partnering with law firms to maximize the value of their existing case portfolios, utilizing legal finance to support and accelerate development of early stage cases.
Mr. Dore is an authority in the field of complex litigation and has been involved in numerous multi-billion dollar cases. Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Dore was the Partner-in-Charge of case development, investigations and client acquisition at Edelson PC, where he oversaw the origination and development of thousands of consolidated and complex actions across a wide spectrum. Mr. Dore was also a member of Edelson's Public Client and Government Affairs practice group, assisting in case development for a number of government regulators at the state, county and municipal levels.
Mr. Dore earned his law degree from the University of Illinois, Chicago School of Law, his Master's in Sociology of Law from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law and his Bachelor's in Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director / Chicago
Christopher Freeman is a Director with responsibility for assessing and underwriting legal risk in patent matters. As part of Burford's investment team, Mr Freeman evaluates intellectual property cases and patent monetization campaigns and crafts investment structures that align incentives between funder, law firm and claimant.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Freeman was Vice President and Head of Litigation at Blackbird Technologies, a company he co-founded in 2014. At Blackbird, Mr. Freeman oversaw all business operations and successfully built and managed one of the most prominent patent acquisition and licensing entities in the US, growing the firm to a dozen employees and a portfolio of over 100 patents and applications. Earlier in his career, Mr. Freeman was an IP partner at Kirkland & Ellis and practiced at Latham & Watkins and at Quinn Emanuel.
Mr. Freeman graduated from the Boston University School of Law and earned an undergraduate degree from Northwestern University in Industrial Engineering and Economics.
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Audit Committee
- Director on the Board
- Non - Executive Director
- Vice Chairman
- Non - Executive Chairman and Chair of the Audit Committee of Mercury® Financial LLC
Christopher Halmy, who became chair of the Audit Committee following the 2023 annual general meeting, is expected to continue to serve in that role until the 2027 annual general meeting, at which time he will leave the Audit Committee to take on the role of the Chairman of the board of directors
Christopher Halmy has served as a director on the Board since May 2022. Mr. Halmy also serves as the chair of the Audit Committee.
Mr. Halmy was most recently the Chief Financial Officer of Ally Financial Inc. (NYSE: ALLY), where he led the multinational initial public offering for the company and was responsible for Ally Financial Inc.'s $25 billion investment portfolio. Before that, Mr. Halmy worked in various finance, accounting and treasury roles at JP Morgan, Bank of America and MBNA. He began his career as an auditor at Deloitte.
Mr. Halmy also serves as the non-executive chairman and chair of the audit committee of Mercury® Financial LLC and is a non-executive director of Mosaic Sustainable Finance Corp. He has previously served as a non-executive director of Spectrum Automotive Holdings Corporation prior to its sale in 2021.
Mr. Halmy earned his MBA and undergraduate degrees from Villanova University, where he currently serves as a member of the Provost Advisory Board, and is a Certified Public Accountant.
Christopher Halmy, a director since 2022, is expected to become Vice Chairman and to serve in that role until the 2027 annual general meeting, at which time he is expected to become Chairman
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Vice President / London
Christopher Jeffreys is a Vice President on Burford's asset recovery team.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Jeffreys spent ten years working in the investigations industry and was a Director in the investigations practice of a multinational consultancy firm. He has particular experience of international asset tracing, fraud investigations and litigation support.
Mr. Jeffreys graduated from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director / New York
Connor Murphy is a Director with responsibility for originating new business with US law firms and companies. He has extensive experience across various consultative business development roles, serving legal professionals in global markets.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Murphy was Managing Director, Advisory, at BDO Advisory USA, where he led their global business development for forensics, concentrating on cross-border disputes and investigations. Prior to BDO, Mr. Murphy was Managing Director, General Counsel for Capstone Advisory Group, where he led the growth of various services and practices, along with serving as general counsel for real estate, contracts, collections and marketing. Mr. Murphy began his career as an Associate Counsel at Condon & Forsyth, before transitioning to business development roles at Merrill Lynch and Navigant Consulting.
Mr. Murphy graduated from St. John's University School of Law and has an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of Notre Dame.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Chief
- Investment Officer
- Deputy Chief Investment Officer / London
Craig Arnott is Deputy Chief Investment Officer with responsibility across our entire investment portfolio as well as responsibility for growing and developing Burford's Australian market. Mr Arnott is a member of Burford's Management and Commitments Committees.
Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Arnott advised the company while serving as barrister at Sixth Floor Selborne and Wentworth Chambers in Sydney. Before being called to the Bar, he was a Partner and Head of Competition/Antitrust Law in London at the international firm Fried Frank. During his time at Fried Frank, Mr. Arnott oversaw many significant deals, including serving as counsel to the pharmaceuticals company Merck in its acquisition of Schering-Plough and as European Counsel to Delta & Pine Land during its acquisition by Montsanto. Before his time at Fried Frank, Mr. Arnott worked at Cravath in New York, Gilbert + Tobin in Sydney and Ashurst in London.
Mr. Arnott earned his BCL and DPhil from the University of Oxford, where he is an alumnus of Ballilol College and a Rhodes Scholar. He graduated at the University of Queensland with First Class Honours in both his Law and Arts degrees, with the University Medals in both. He began his career as a law clerk to the Honorable W. Pincus of the Federal Court of Australia.
Job Titles:
- Co - Head of EMEA / Dubai
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- Manager, Communications & Marketing / New York
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- Director, Global Public Policy / Washington
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- Media Inquiries
- Vice President / New York
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- Co - Chief Operating Officer / New York
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- Senior Corporate Counsel / New York
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- Chief Strategy Officer / New York
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- Managing Director / Chicago
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- Managing Director / California
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- Managing Director / California
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- Vice President / New York
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- Managing Director / New York
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- Director, Burford Capital Holdings ( UK ) Limited
Job Titles:
- Chairman of the Board
- Chairman and a Non - Executive Director
Hugh Steven Wilson is the Chair of the Board. In his role as the Chair of the Board, he focuses on strategy, decision-making and corporate governance. Mr. Wilson has served as a director on the Board since Burford's inception in 2009 and as the Chair of the Board since May 2021. Mr. Wilson also serves as the chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee.
Mr. Wilson spent more than 30 years at Latham & Watkins, one of the world's largest law firms, where he was Global Co-Chair of the Mergers and Acquisitions Practice Group and chair of both the National Litigation Department and the National Mergers and Acquisitions Litigation Practice. He then joined Tennenbaum Capital Partners, a US-based private investment business, as Managing Partner and served as the Chief Executive Officer of multiple registered investment funds managed by Tennenbaum Capital Partners. After his retirement, Mr. Wilson continued to serve as a Senior Adviser to Tennenbaum Capital Partners through its acquisition by BlackRock. Mr. Wilson has served as the chair of the boards of directors and a director of numerous public and private companies.
Mr. Wilson also serves as the chair of Burford Capital Holdings (UK) Limited, one of Burford's principal subsidiaries, to ensure non-executive oversight.
Mr. Wilson holds a BA from Indiana University, a JD from the University of Chicago Law School and a Master of Laws degree from Harvard Law School.
Job Titles:
- Vice President / New York
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- Senior Advisor / New York
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- Quantitative Investment Associate / London
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- Quantitative Investment Associate / Chicago
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- Director, Head of Investor
- Director, Head of Investor Relations, Americas / NEW YORK
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- Senior Advisor / New York
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- Senior Vice President / Dubai
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- Managing Director / New York
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- Chairman of the Compensation Committee
- Director on the Board
- Non - Executive Director
- Trustee and Chairman of the Audit Committee for a Number of Aberdeen Standard Investments
John Sievwright is expected to continue to serve as chair of the Compensation Committee until the 2027 annual general meeting, at which time Mr. Halmy is expected to assume that role
John Sievwright has served as a director on the Board since May 2020. Mr. Sievwright also serves as the chair of the Compensation Committee and as a member of the Audit Committee.
Mr. Sievwright is the former Chief Operating Officer, International, of Merrill Lynch. Mr. Sievwright had a 20-year career with Merrill Lynch with a range of global leadership positions, including Chief Operating Officer, Global Markets and Investment Banking; President and Chief Operating Officer, Merrill Lynch Japan; and Head of Global Futures and Options (during which time he also served as the President of the Futures Industry Association). Prior to Merrill Lynch, Mr. Sievwright held finance and accounting functions at Bankers Trust and the Bank of Tokyo. He began his career as an auditor at Ernst & Young and qualified as a Chartered Accountant.
Mr. Sievwright also serves as a trustee and chairman of the audit committee for a number of Aberdeen Standard Investments closed end funds and as a non-executive director and the chairman of the risk committee of Revolut, a financial services company. He is also the chairman of the board of directors of Buyside Trading Solutions, a financial services company. Mr. Sievwright has previously served as the senior independent director and chairman of the audit and risk committee at ICAP plc (now NEX Group plc) and the senior independent director and chairman of the audit committee of FirstGroup plc. He has an MA in accountancy and economics from the University of Aberdeen.
John Sievwright, a director since 2020, is expected to become Chairman and to serve in that role until the 2027 annual general meeting, at which time he will retire from the Board
Job Titles:
- CIO
- Chief Investment Officer / Washington
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- Vice President / California
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- Chief Financial Officer / Chicago
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- Senior Advisor / New York
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- Senior Vice President / New York
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- Director / Zug, Switzerland
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- Managing Director / Chicago
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- Underwriting Paralegal Manager / New York
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- Managing Director & Chief Innovation Officer / New York
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- Senior Vice President / London
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- Financial Controller / London
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- Chief Marketing Officer / New York
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- General Counsel & Chief Administrative Officer / New York
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- Co - Head of EMEA / London
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- Chief Compliance Officer / Chicago
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- Managing Corporate Counsel / Chicago
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- Managing Director / California
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- Managing Director, Tax & HR / New York
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- Senior Vice President / London
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- Corporate Counsel / London
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- Director, Head of Investor
- Director, Head of Investor Relations, EMEA and Asia / LONDON
- Shareholder Contacts
Job Titles:
- Director
- Director on the Board
- Member of the Audit Committee
- Non - Executive Director
Robert Gillespie, a director since 2020, is expected to become chair of the Nominating and Governance Committee following Hugh Steven Wilson's retirement from the board of directors at the 2024 annual general meeting and, following Mr. Gillespie's retirement from the board of directors at the 2027 annual general meeting, Rukia Baruti, a director since 2022, is expected to assume that role
Robert Gillespie has served as a director on the Board since May 2020. Mr. Gillespie also serves as a member of the Audit Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee.
Mr. Gillespie was most recently the Director General of the UK Takeover Panel. He had a lengthy career as an investment banker, spending more than 25 years at UBS and its predecessors in a range of senior positions, including Vice Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, EMEA and Joint Global Head of Investment Banking, while also serving on the Group Managing Board and the Management Committee for many years. Mr. Gillespie started his career as a Chartered Accountant at PwC.
Mr. Gillespie has previously served as a director of NatWest Group plc (formerly known as Royal Bank of Scotland plc) and certain of its principal subsidiary companies and was a member of NatWest Group plc's audit and risk committees. In addition, Mr. Gillespie has previously served as a director of Citizens Financial Group Inc. and Ashurst LLP, a law firm, and as the chairman of the board of directors of Boat Race Company Ltd., Somerset House Trust and the Council of Durham University, from which he graduated with a degree in economics.
Job Titles:
- Director on the Board
- Member of the Compensation Committee
- Non - Executive Director
Rukia Baruti has served as a director on the Board since August 2022. Dr. Baruti also serves as a member of the Compensation Committee and the Nominating and Governance Committee.
Dr. Baruti is an experienced independent arbitrator and is a qualified solicitor in England and Wales. Her career began in commercial law in the City of London in 1997. In 2006, she joined the international arbitration group at SJ Berwin LLP (later merged with King & Wood Mallesons), where she practiced arbitration and litigation until 2010.
In 2011, Dr. Baruti founded the Africa International Legal Awareness, a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing African involvement in the international legal community, where she was a managing director until 2018. She also co-founded the African Arbitration Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to promotion of African arbitration practitioners, where she served as Secretary General from 2018 to 2022.
Dr. Baruti holds a bachelor's degree in international studies from Birkbeck College, University of London, an MA in diplomatic studies and international law from the University of Westminster and a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva.
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- Underwriting Associate / London
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- Corporate Counsel / New York
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- Senior Vice President / New York