My legal life: Diogo Gouveia, Harbour

I had not considered a career in law until a conversation with an acquaintance – a legal trainee – a few months after completing my undergraduate degree in philosophy. At that time, I had done some ad hoc work for a few start-up businesses. I had input into business plans. I also got to grips with the steps necessary to set up companies, learning about ownership structures, contracts, reporting requirements, and so on.

I enjoyed learning about these various facets. The idea crystallised that I could take this ad hoc work further and earn a living acting as a legal adviser to companies on these issues. Before long, I signed up to a graduate diploma in law and the LPC, intending to become a commercial solicitor.

My parents encouraged me to become a lawyer, but no one in our family or social circle had any such experience. So I commenced my legal journey somewhat blindly, stumbling my way through the London legal sector.

I landed a paralegal role at Fladgate in their real estate team. This was my first real exposure to legal work and a platform from which to progress my career. While there, I continued to seek exposure to different types of law firms, attending events, interviews, and open days. You get dragged into looking for work at Big Law (and I was initially no different), but I knew myself well enough to recognise that I felt better working in smaller environments.

It was fortunate, then, that a friend informed me of a paralegal position he was leaving vacant at Harbour Litigation Funding. That was eight years ago. Interestingly, at the time, I remember lots of people from the firm asking what litigation funding was and whether it was allowed. Since then, the understanding and perception of litigation funding has changed from something which was fairly unknown to something that the majority of firms do consider.

'I analysed the merits and economic viability of legal claims of all sorts to determine if we should consider investing in them'

I applied and got the job. I was effectively shadowing the GC and working across all facets of the business. At that time, Harbour was a small team, and everyone got stuck into everything. I enjoyed the general aspect of working at Harbour as I did not need to specialise and could try my hand at everything. It allowed me to use my legal skills more broadly, whether that was company secretarial work, or negotiating and drafting investment agreements. I also analysed the merits and economic viability of legal claims of all sorts to determine if we should consider investing in them. I always had a head for numbers and the role allowed me to make use of my numeracy skillset, unusual in other legal roles.

After a while at Harbour, I was thrilled that they were in a position to offer me a training contract. My contract was commercially focused. In addition to the work I have already mentioned, I also worked on setting up a sister business and a group restructure, registration of Harbour’s IP, and a private equity capital raising. It was much like working in-house.

I also worked on case management. This meant I oversaw the progress of the investments we made, actively managing our investment risk and budget. I was also able to follow the litigation from beginning to end, reading opinions, pleadings and reports; and attending conferences, CMCs and interlocutory hearings, including security for costs applications, mediations and trials. Particularly interesting cases were a class action by Indonesian seaweed farmers looking to recover losses caused by an oil spill, and a $300m company fraud and consequential enforcement action.

Though Harbour is a litigation funder, it does not itself run the litigation. I was seconded to Mishcon de Reya to supplement my contentious seat.

Once I completed my training contract, I had the option to work exclusively within the in-house legal team. But as I enjoyed the investment side of the business, I decided to go down that route instead. I still make use of my legal skills doing some of the work already mentioned. But I also now look at different ways that claims as an asset class can be used as collateral for the provision of different sorts of funding.

Even during my training contract, it was clear that litigation funding was a quickly growing, ever-changing industry. This is what keeps it interesting to this day.