Burford Capital Limited
Research Associate
Burford
Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused
on law. Its businesses include litigation finance and risk management,
asset recovery and a wide range of legal finance and advisory
activities. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange
(NYSE: BUR) and the London Stock Exchange (LSE: BUR), and it works with
law firms and clients around the world from its principal offices in New
York, London, Chicago, Washington, Singapore and Sydney.
The
Firm has created a Research Associate position who will support
business development, marketing, investing and other Company functions
through custom information research with a focus on the business of law.
The role will report to Head of Research and be based in Burford’s New York or Chicago offices.
www.burfordcapital.com
Company Overview
Burford Capital is the largest and most experienced provider of commercial finance to the legal sector in the world, with a core expertise in identifying and optimizing the value of legal assets for companies and law firms. Since its founding in 2009, Burford has worked with hundreds of law firms and corporations, including 93 of the AmLaw 100 and 89 of the Global 100 largest law firms. Our team has grown from five people at the end of 2009 to over 130 people today, including some 60 lawyers.
Burford possesses the resources and expertise of a large company while retaining the flexibility and creativity of a startup. Team members are smart, creative, collaborative, curious, and confident. Everyone rolls up their sleeves to perform and engage collectively for the overall success of the business. Burford values rigorous thinking, clear communication, and efficient execution.
Burford pays base salaries consistent with the financial services industry and favors incentive compensation to reward performance. [LG2] Burford provides competitive health care benefits and a 401k matching program. Burford Capital is committed to increasing diversity and maintaining an inclusive workplace culture. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of their ethnicity, race, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, age, marital status, whether or not they have a disability.
Position Requirements
Marketing & Business Development Support
· Support Burford’s business development goals through custom research on a broad variety of legal, financial and news databases
· Master legal analytics sources and research the underlying legal cases as appropriate
· Scope and complete research projects for user groups including Business Development, Marketing, Public Policy, Strategy and Finance
· Identify business prospects and ways to reach them; research and correct information on contacts and prospects that is out of date.
· Track and share information on litigation finance, Burford’s competitors, and the business of law
· Scan the legal press for case opportunities and digest and present them to Business Development team weekly
· Provide statistics from public sources for Burford’s quarterly and annual reports, thought leadership, blog posts, marketing collateral etc.
· Track and report important developments related to legal professionals across the industry including firm moves, promotions, special appointments, firm leadership etc.
· Other ad hoc projects as requested
Investment Pipeline & Portfolio Support
· Support Burford’s legal professionals through custom research on a broad variety of legal, financial and news databases
· Monitor legal databases and press sources for developments that might impact cases in the investment portfolio
· Provide statistics or background information to assist Burford’s Litigation Finance team in diligencing and assessing potential cases for investment
· Monitor for cases or information of interest to Burford’s specialty investment teams such as bankruptcy, antitrust/competition, appeals funding, arbitration, securities class actions, tax, asset recovery, etc.
· Provide research and support to Burford’s investment committees as needed
· Other ad hoc projects as requested
Research Administration
· Master legal analytics sources and provide expertise and assistance in staff use of Burford’s research resources
· Manage the Research Department’s subscriptions tracking database, including assigning licenses, and managing execution of contract renewals in collaboration with the Head of Research
· Process vendor invoices and monitor the Research Department’s performance to budget
· Work with vendors and other researchers to train users in a variety of research tools
· Research and assess new resource options, arranging demos and trials where appropriate
Skills Desired
Qualifications & Experience
· Master’s degree in Library Science OR documented library reference experience
· Demonstrated strong database retrieval and web search skills
· 2+ years in a professional services setting
· A JD or experience in the legal industry preferred
Core Competencies & Skills / Personal Attributes & Fit
· Intellectual curiosity, a logical mind, and a good memory
· Ability to digest large amounts of data and distill it into useful, well organized summaries
· Enjoyment of learning new topics, sharing knowledge with others, and helping to solve problems
· Ability to prioritize and to manage multiple projects and deadlines
· Comfortable with ambiguity, proposing and testing hypotheses, and bringing order and structure to complex questions
· Strong interest in the business of law rather than practice of law
To Apply: https://www.burfordcapital.com/about-burford/careers/
Summary
Burford’s research function connects people across the business with information they need to know—ideally before they have to ask for it. As a professional researcher, you will not just answer the immediate question at hand, but go beyond to offer continuing insight and added value. You will also connect requestors to internal and external resources they can use to uncover information themselves.
At Burford, you will be a trusted partner to legal and finance professionals – acknowledged for your technical skills but also for a rarer willingness to challenge yourself and to critically analyze the answers you supply. Litigation finance is a growing field and Burford is by far the industry leader; the work you do will be at the cutting edge of industry research, and as such, the diverse requests that come to you will not always be achievable, but always be interesting. This position offers an excellent opportunity for a savvy researcher seeking an “outside the box” position to apply ingenuity and creativity to uncovering answers that matter to the business.
