Missed the Q4 edition of Engage Quarterly? Fancy reading succinct discussions of #stewardship topics such as resetting climate change expectations (courtesy of Brynn O'Brien of Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) ), ESG risk in the built environment (courtesy of Armando Castro / Kell Jones of The Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction UCL) or class closure orders in Australian securities litigation (courtesy of Woodsford's Muhammad Arayne) ? Check out the 2024 Q4 edition at https://lnkd.in/e-nqy84U. 👀 Keep an eye out for the Q1 2025 edition due to be published later this month. We'll be covering topics including the role of AI in stewardship analytics, lessons to be learnt from AGM Season 2024 and to be implemented for AGM Season 2025, and the role stewardship has to play in the implementation of effective DEI policies. #institutionalinvestors #engagement
Woodsford
Financial Services
London, England 4,680 followers
Woodsford is a leading collective redress, access to justice and litigation finance business.
About us
Woodsford is a collective redress business. We focus on situations where multiple parties, often shareholders or consumers, suffer financial loss following breakdowns in ESG, in particular corporate governance, at major companies. We help the wronged parties collectively seek redress from the wrongdoers. There are two key ways in which we do this, working in close liaison with specialist law firms and other external experts. Engagement Solutions Woodsford identifies significant corporate wrongdoing and related financial loss, brings it to the attention of the affected parties, and helps them collect together to engage with the wrongdoers. We have a particular focus on identifying catastrophic breakdowns in ESG at, and related misrepresentations to the capital markets by, major public equity companies. We bring these issues to the attention of investors, help them quantify their financial losses, and collect them together to engage with the investee company (and sometimes its auditors and other related parties) in the pursuit of accountability and compensation. Our engagements include most of the top 100 global asset managers by AUM, and many state retirement, sovereign wealth and pension funds. To date, we have focused on institutional shareholders. Financial Solutions – Litigation Funding Woodsford operates in jurisdictions where the pursuit of collective redress from major corporate wrongdoers comes with significant financial cost and risk. The legal fees and other costs incurred on claimant side in collective actions can be significant. Further, some of the jurisdictions in which we operate have costs shifting rules that mean that parties who pursue litigation are at risk of being ordered to pay a significant amount of their opponent’s costs if some or all of their case is unsuccessful. Our litigation funding business is in a position to bear some or all of this financial risk.
- Website
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https://www.woodsford.com
External link for Woodsford
- Industry
- Financial Services
- Company size
- 11-50 employees
- Headquarters
- London, England
- Type
- Privately Held
- Founded
- 2010
- Specialties
- Third Party Litigation Funding, Commercial Arbitration Funding, Law Firm Finance, Litigation Finance, Portfolio Funding, Class Action Funding, Litigation Monetisation, Portfolio Litigation Funding, Litigation Funding as Corporate Finance, ESG, Collective redress, Securities Class Actions, Competition Class Actions, Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT), Shareholder engagement, Escalated engagement, and Stewardship
Locations
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Primary
Get directions
8 Bloomsbury Street
London, England WC1B 3, GB
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101 Cecil Street
Tong Eng Building #09-05
Singapore , Singapore 069533, SG
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Level 11, 110 Eagle Street
Brisbane, QLD 4000, AU
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Toronto, CA
Employees at Woodsford
Updates
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'We are the stick that encourages companies to behave better.' - Our CEO, Steven Friel in today's FD (Het Financieele Dagblad) article by Thieu Vaessen and Pieter Couwenbergh. We continue to provide an essential tool in any institutional investor's #stewardship toolkit which contains the carrots 🥕 🥕 described below but also the stick when the #corporategovernance failings of listed investee companies are so egregious as to cause significant loss to #institutionalinvestors who seek both accountability and compensation. If you are an insitutional investor that wishes to discuss our approach and how we can assist you with your stewardship and accountability objectives get in contact with Mitesh Modha or any members of the team mentioned below.
It was a pleasure speaking with Thieu Vaessen and Pieter Couwenbergh at Het Financieele Dagblad about Woodsford's collective redress business. We discussed, in particular, the 'carrot and stick' approach to investor stewardship. Most engagement between institutional investors and the public companies in which they invest is about the 'carrot', i.e. investing, voting and the exchange of ideas aimed at positively encouraging big companies to do the right thing in the pursuit of shareholder value. But the 'carrot' only works if institutional shareholders can also make use of the 'stick'. When there have been egregious breakdowns in corporate governance at major companies that cause loss to shareholder value, institutional investors need access to forms of escalated engagement up to and including litigation with the aim of securing both compensation for the loss and accountability from the wrongdoers, thereby deterring future misconduct. That is where Woodsford steps in. We work with most of the world's biggest institutional investors to help them secure compensation and accountability following catastrophic breakdowns at, and related misrepresentations by, publicly traded companies. Bram Berends Charlie Morris David Haughan Muhammad Arayne Ioan Mortimer Mitesh Modha Amber Imran Said Michael A. Alex Hickson Emily Woolcott Cody Nguyen #corporategovernance #stewardship #engagement https://lnkd.in/euUUJHwB
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Woodsford reposted this
Tesla has been hit with a class action in the Federal Court of Australia for its defective braking, batteries and automatic driving functionality. The class is being represented by JGA Saddler with the financial backing of litigation funder Woodsford. Natasha Doris reports. https://lnkd.in/er5QKuk6
Tesla hit with ‘phantom braking’ class action - CDR News
https://www.cdr-news.com
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Our global #collectiveredress business marches on. We're working with JGA Saddler in their pursuit of redress for Australian Tesla owners who have been sold vehicles with potentially fatal defects that can cause 'phantom braking' and vehicles that are failing to deliver on promises relating to automation and driving range. We look forward to working with Rebecca Jancauskas and her team at JGA with a view to seeking redress on behalf of #Australian consumers. Our Investment Officer, David Haughan commented: "Tesla customers have not got what they paid for. They were sold a car based on promises about the vehicles’ self-driving capabilities, battery range, and safety features, and Tesla has not delivered. Far too many customers have experienced dangerous “phantom braking” incidents. Tesla should take this opportunity to repair its relationship with its customers." #classaction #litigationfunding
Woodsford supports JGA Saddler in major Australian Tesla class action - Woodsford UK
https://woodsford.com
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Lexology is back with its annual report, Panoramic Next: ESG Engagement and Litigation 2025, edited by Woodsford's Steven Friel. The report explores the fast-changing landscape surrounding corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) obligations and risks, and the means through which stakeholders hold corporates to account for them. With contributions from global experts, this cross-jurisdictional comparison tool analyses recent trends and developments in England & Wales (by Steven Friel and Mitesh Modha), Australia (by Ellen Roberts and Joel P.), Switzerland (by Isabelle Romy, Ines Pöschel, and Denise Wohlwend), Austria (by Bettina Knoetzl and Ferdinand Urban), and the United States (by Nirajé Medley-Bacon and Elizabeth Raulston). We would like to extend our gratitude to the contributors and the team at Lexology for their efforts in bringing this report together. Read the report here - https://lnkd.in/e9rcVj8S #lexology #panoramic #engagement
Lexology Panoramic Next: ESG Engagement Litigation 2025
woodsford.com
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Woodsford reposted this
Lexology Panoramic: Litigation Funding 2025 by Jonathan Barnes and Steven Friel of Woodsford is now available on Lexology https://lnkd.in/ejjnABZZ Lexology Panoramic: Litigation Funding is a quick reference guide enabling side-by-side comparison of local insights, including regulation and regulators; funders’ rights (choice of counsel, participation in proceedings, veto of settlement and funding termination rights); conditional and contingency fee agreements; judgment, appeal and enforcement; collective actions; costs and insurance; disclosure and privilege; disputes between litigants and funders; and recent trends. #LexologyPanoramic
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Grateful to the team at Chambers and Partners for recognising our work in this space alongside the other nominees. We look forward to finding out the winner next week but irrespective of the outcome we'll continue with our efforts to seek redress on behalf stakeholders, from consumers to shareholders and everyone in between! #collectiveredress #litigationfunding
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We're pleased to share that our CEO, Steven Friel, and Investment Officer, David Haughan, have been appointed to key International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) Committees. Steven will sit on the Global Policy Committee and David on the Future Leaders Committee. We congratulate them both on their new memberships and look forward to further collaborations with ICGN (as to which, keep an eye out for details of the Future Leaders Launch Event!) #stewardship #policy #events
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Attending the Clyde & Co Global FIDO Conference tomorrow (Tuesday, 14 January 2025)? Keep an eye out for our CEO, Steven Friel, who will be speaking on the opening panel of the day, Group Actions & Litigation Funding, alongside Clyde & Co partners Karen Boto, Garrett Moore, Jen Robbins and Katelin O'Rourke Gorman (Chair). Thanks to the Clyde & Co team (Rhiannon Froment (née Bennett) for organising and having us on board for what we hope will be an insightful discussion. #collectiveredress #litigationfunding
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Proud to be supporting Mark McLaren in the landmark Car Delivery Charges class action trial that is underway in the Competition Appeal Tribunal with a legal team comprising Belinda Hollway and her team at Scott+Scott and the counsel team comprising Sarah Ford KC, Sarah O'Keeffe (both of Brick Court Chambers and Nicholas Gibson (Matrix Chambers). We remain committed to the #consumers affected by the cartel with settlements, in respect of 3 out of the 5 cartelists, in excess of £38m having already been reached in the course of 2023 and 2024. #collectiveredress #classactions
Shipping giants face landmark cartel class action for overcharging UK motorists
https://www.cityam.com