Litigation Finance Advisory

Institutional capital, aligned with legal assets.

Celsia Capital advises hedge funds, multi-strats, and sophisticated asset managers on allocation, sourcing, and underwriting in one of the last truly uncorrelated alternative asset classes.

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Our Approach

A discipline borrowed from credit. Applied to law.

Litigation finance has matured into a credible alternative asset class with institutional sponsors, secondary trading, and increasingly sophisticated structures.

And yet, capital allocators face a familiar problem: access without insight, or insight without access. The funds with the best origination rarely have capacity for new partners. The funds with capacity often lack the underwriting depth to clear an institutional investment committee.

Celsia exists in the gap between them. We work alongside institutional investors and the managers they back — translating between legal, financial, and fiduciary languages — so that capital is deployed where it can be both underwritten and rewarded.

Our practice is grounded in a simple conviction: the strongest litigation portfolios are built the same way as the strongest credit portfolios — through rigorous sourcing, disciplined diligence, and patient structuring.

Alignment

We work for the allocator. No origination fees from funded matters, no conflicts with sponsors. Our incentives are measured in long-term returns, not transaction volume.

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Discretion

Most of our work is bilateral and confidential. We do not publish league tables. We do not announce mandates. Our reputation is built one room at a time.

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Domain depth

A decade of underwriting matters across commercial litigation, mass torts, IP, and international arbitration — with relationships at the very top of the trial bar and Fortune 200 legal departments.

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Patient structure

Litigation outcomes are not quarterly. We help build portfolios — and term sheets — that reflect the time horizon of the underlying assets, keeping both parties aligned for the long term success of the investments.

Services

Three mandates. One discipline.

We work with allocators across the litigation finance investment lifecycle — from initial allocation strategy through portfolio construction, secondary positioning, and exit.

Allocation Strategy

For institutional investors building or expanding exposure to legal assets, from a first commitment to a programmatic allocation.

Sizing and pacing across vintages and managers
Diligence of single-fund versus multi-manager exposure
Risk budgeting against existing private credit and special situations sleeves
Benchmarking and performance attribution frameworks

Sourcing & Origination

Differentiated access to single-case, portfolio, and law-firm-receivable transactions through long-standing relationships at the trial bar.

Direct-source opportunities not otherwise marketed
Co-investment alongside established sponsors
Portfolio facilities with Am Law 200 and boutique firms
Pre-settlement and judgment-monetization structures

Underwriting & Structuring

Independent merits and recovery analysis with the financial structuring discipline institutional investment committees require.

Independent legal merits and damages assessment
Waterfall, MOIC, and IRR modeling under base and stress cases
Term sheet negotiation and intercreditor structuring
Secondary valuation and exit-route analysis

The Asset Class

An asset class that has come of age.

A decade ago, litigation finance was a curiosity at the edge of alternative credit. Today, it is an institutional market with dedicated sponsors, secondary buyers, and a growing role inside multi-strategy and private credit portfolios.

The opportunity, however, is no longer simply "discovery." The opportunity is discrimination: distinguishing well-underwritten matters from poorly-priced ones, durable sponsors from one-cycle managers, and structurally sound facilities from concentrated risk dressed in attractive headline returns.

That is the work we do — every day, for every allocator we serve.

Allocator interest by mandate (indicative)

Single-case

42%

Portfolio

78%

Law-firm lending

64%

Mass tort

55%

Judgment & award

48%

Secondaries

71%

Indicative composite of allocator conversations over the trailing twelve months. Not investment advice.

Founder

A decade at the intersection of law and capital.

Kelly Daley

Founder & Principal

Kelly Daley founded Celsia Capital to do the work she had spent a decade preparing for: connecting institutional capital with legal assets, on terms that respect both.

For the past decade, Kelly was a Managing Director at Burford Capital and Gerchen Capital Partners, where she was responsible for sourcing and executing new investments — focused on corporate finance secured by contingent legal assets. Along the way she developed lasting relationships with the trial bar, Fortune 200 legal departments, and the institutional allocators who back them.

Before she entered the litigation finance industry, Kelly was a senior litigator at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, where her practice focused on the litigation needs of media and technology companies — intellectual property litigation, contract disputes, content protection, and product liability. She had previously worked at MoloLamken LLP and McDermott Will & Emery, and served as Law Clerk to the Honorable D. Michael Fisher on the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Education

Georgetown University
J.D. & A.B.

Bar Admissions

Illinois, New York,
District of Columbia

Prior Practice

Burford Capital,
Gerchen Capital Partners

Clerkship

Hon. D. Michael Fisher,
U.S. Court of Appeals, 3d Cir.

Engage

Begin a conversation.

We work with a small number of institutional clients at any one time. Inquiries from allocators, sponsors, and law firms are welcome and held in confidence.

Direct

kelly.daley@celsiacapital.com

Office

Chicago, Illinois

Kelly Daley →

Response

Within two business days

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Organization

Capacity

How can we help?

All inquiries are treated as confidential. No solicitation of securities; nothing on this site constitutes investment advice or an offer to sell any interest.