Building a Litigation Finance Program at BigLaw Based on Project Management Principles (Angela Floessel, MoFo)

Angela Floessel, Global Director of Pricing and Legal Project Management at Morrison Foerster, discusses the litigation finance program she helped set up permitting MoFo to take good cases it might not otherwise take, secure good results for clients it might not otherwise help and help grow the firm's bottom line while doing it. Before moving to legal, Angela spent most of her career in finance. But in 2015, she took her business skills to the legal world. First to Baker Mckenzie and ultimately landed at Morrison Foerster. Among other responsibilities, Angela was hired to build out MoFo's pricing and practice management teams, but while doing that, her business background helped her spot another opportunity at the firm to develop–a litigation funding program. Working with other lawyers at her firm, they developed a structured litigation funding program, with a due diligence protocol and a legal funding committee that vets good cases for which they can enlist the help of litigation funders. As Angela also explains, to ensure the program is a success, its foundation relies on project management processes. The firm's project management team is involved in the cases every step of the way to make sure they identify the right opportunities, staff the cases correctly and stay on budget.