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A former lawyer who became a Silicon Valley entrepreneur acknowledges he paid roughly $10 million to finance Hulk Hogan’s winning lawsuit against Gawker and says it’s not the only case he has financed.

Peter Thiel tells the New York Times DealBook blog that he paid lawyers to find people who had been harmed by Gawker news stories and financed at least two current cases against the gossip website. The financial backing, Thiel says, is “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done.” A judge ruled $145 million dollars of damages against Gawker.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ ... ekly_email

So, what do you guys think about this new trend of "litigation financing"? Unethical? Brilliant? Have any of you ever experienced this?

calling Peter Thiel a "Lawyer" is like calling Bill Gates a college dropout: Technically true but not a useful distinction.

dabigchina wrote:calling Peter Thiel a "Lawyer" is like calling Bill Gates a college dropout: Technically true but not a useful distinction.

Look at the source... The ABA Journal... Of course they call him a lawyer. He's the living example that a law degree is "transferrable" to lots of other fields...

reasonable_man wrote:

dabigchina wrote:calling Peter Thiel a "Lawyer" is like calling Bill Gates a college dropout: Technically true but not a useful distinction.

Look at the source... The ABA Journal... Of course they call him a lawyer. He's the living example that a law degree is "transferrable" to lots of other fields...

Agreed with reasonableman here. He didn't make that kind of coin practicing law.

Brilliant? I think so.

Unethical? I don't think so, but it has been awhile since I studied for the MPRE.

kellyfrost wrote:

reasonable_man wrote:

dabigchina wrote:calling Peter Thiel a "Lawyer" is like calling Bill Gates a college dropout: Technically true but not a useful distinction.

Look at the source... The ABA Journal... Of course they call him a lawyer. He's the living example that a law degree is "transferrable" to lots of other fields...

Agreed with reasonableman here. He didn't make that kind of coin practicing law.

Brilliant? I think so.

Unethical? I don't think so, but it has been awhile since I studied for the MPRE.

At least in NY, a lawyer is 100 percent permitted under the Ethics Rules to finance a lawsuit. However, that lawyer cannot have any part in the representation of the client. Plenty of lawyers in NY own litigation finance companies. Its very common. Since the ABA are the only people that know or care that Peter thiel is a lawyer (I'd bet he even forgot), and there is no evidence he had any professional role in representing the Hulk - I doubt there are any real ethical issues here.

Theil talks about his under 1 yr stint in big law sometimes: "from the outside it's a place where everyone wanted to get in, from the inside it's a place where everyone wanted to get out."