Big Law Firms Cool to Idea of Bringing on Burford's Billions

Legal ethics attorney Trisha Rich was mentioned in a Bloomberg Law article covering reactions to Burford Capital's plans to invest in U.S. law firms. The publicly traded litigation finance firm announced it was exploring options for buying a stake in American practices, raising questions about how it could do so without violating rules against nonlawyer ownership of law firms. One possibility that has emerged is management services organizations (MSOs), which handle back-office support functions including billing and human resources and operate as a separate entity from a firm. These arrangements allow lawyers to pass off non-legal aspects of their job while giving MSO operators a chance to invest in a firm without having an actual ownership stake. Ms. Rich highlighted that "there are few people openly discussing these models in the legal profession," even though MSOs have been commonly used in other areas such as healthcare and accounting.

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