Alternative Litigation Funding: Is It Right for You?

John Harabedian is Legal Counsel in Bentham’s Los Angeles office, where he conducts due diligence on potential investments and provides legal advice to Bentham.

Prior to joining the Bentham team, John was a prosecutor in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, where he conducted over a hundred preliminary hearings and served as the sole prosecutor on six trials to verdict. Earlier in John’s career, he practiced as a litigator at Latham & Watkins LLP, representing both plaintiffs and defendants in commercial and securities litigation.

John graduated from Yale University, and then received his M.Sc. from Oxford University. After receiving his J.D. from Stanford Law School, John served as a law clerk to Judge Josephine Staton of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In 2012, John was elected as a Councilmember for the City of Sierra Madre, where he resides with his wife and son. John served as Mayor of Sierra Madre during the 2014-2015 term, and was re-elected to the City Council in April 2016 for another four-year term.

In his role as Chief Business Officer General Counsel, Paul Seeman oversees the growth and start-up strategies as well as the business operations at UI LABS. UI LABS is a tech accelerator with over 300 members focused on smart manufacturing and smart infrastructure that is funded by both the Department of Defense and the MacArthur Foundation.

Prior to UI LABS, Paul was the general counsel of LAMB Partners, a Forbes 400 family office. In his role at LAMB, Paul oversaw the formation and growth of Rush Street Gaming, a casino that opened and operated 5 land-based casinos and an online casino operation during Paul’s tenure. In addition, at LAMB, Paul oversaw all legal issues related to investments in hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, litigation finance funds, start-up companies and other one-off investments.

Paul has been studying and investing in litigation finance since 2011. Prior to joining LAMB, Paul worked in the hedge fund group at Sidley Austin in Chicago and in the corporate group (with a focus on hedge funds) at Willkie Farr & Gallagher in New York. Paul is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Virginia School of Law. Paul currently serves as the Chairman of Illinois Legal Aid Online.