A North American litigation funder pledging millions for legal cases in the UK has brought on board one of the sector’s key figures of recent years.

Heirloom Fair Legal announced its arrival in the UK in January and has now appointed Steve Din as its senior vice-president.

Din is best known as the founder of Doorway Capital, which invested in several law firms and bought national firm Simpson Millar. He left Doorway last August and will now sit on HFL’s investment committee alongside founder Geoff Dover and Rupert Purser, who previously set up Burford Capital’s Asia and Middle East operations.

As well as Din, HFL has also hired Phil Hales, Doorway’s former business development director, as vice-president of funding relationships.

HFL has pledged to invest in claims areas of data breach, motor finance mis-selling, irresponsible lending and institutional abuse. Dover has also said the company will fund housing disrepair claims which have proven a precarious task for some firms that ended up going out of business in the last five years.

Steve Din

Steve Din is best known as the founder of Doorway Capital

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HFL has provided more than £25m of funding to firms and claimaints since 2022 but expects that figure to reach £75m by the end of 2025, and £250m a year later as it rolls out new funding solutions and structures.

Din said: ‘Heirloom’s larger infrastructure and bespoke approach versus what we had at Doorway allows us to provide more flexible structures and be more creative in designing funding packages that meet the legal ecosystem’s needs.’

Dover, a Canadian entrepreneur who co-founded the business with lawyer Beth Hirshfeld, said HFL has the capital and now the expertise to support claimants and their lawyers.

‘The addition of Steve and Phil shows how serious we are about this,’ he added. ‘At Doorway, they led the way in putting law firms large and small onto solid financial foundations.

‘We look forward to their contributions toward partnering with law firms and service providers that share our goal of resolving disputes more quickly and cost effectively by combining technology, legal advice and finance solutions.’