Shareholder Litigation
Our CEO, Steven Friel, was interviewed recently by Aaran Fronda of ESG Investor.
Steven explained why investors must actively engage with investee firms to make the downside of bad activity outweigh the upside for potential corporate wrongdoers.
“There is a growing realisation that investors need to use all the engagement tools available to them,” Steven told ESG Investor. “That primarily means voting at AGMs and generally engaging with the company, but it also includes collective, escalated engagement, up to and including litigation.”
“Banks engage in money laundering, retail businesses engage in supply chain labour practices that abuse workers’ rights, and miners engage in corruption and bribery around the world – all that has happened and continues to happen,” he says. Twenty years ago, those companies might have got a “regulatory wrap on the knuckles” but now that investors have a wider array of engagement tools at their disposal, wrongdoers are being held to account.
As a commercial litigation funder, Woodsford supports investors seeking redress from investee firms for a serious breakdown of ESG standards leading to financial loss or a decline in the shareholder value. Woodsford takes the financial risk in a third party’s legal proceedings and shares in the proceeds if successful.
You can read the full interview here.
