Lines of Credit also exist for attorneys for large cases. These financing tools are aimed towards attorneys that are heavily invested in a particular case. For some legal work, some lawyers ‘bet the house’ in pursuing legal action. These are the kind of cases legal movies are made out of (like Erin Brockovich.) The plaintiff attorney is not being paid upfront to do work. Rather, they are taking considerable risk in spending their time and energy, using their junior (salaried) lawyers, paying hefty court filing and administrative fees, private investigator fees, and expert witness fees, and other travel costs.
Typically there could be a potential huge payday for the plaintiffs (and also the plaintiff law firm, as they will receive a percentage of the end judgement/settlement). Cases that are ‘protracted’, or take years to resolve will only be more and more expensive.
Thus for a law firm that is ‘betting the house’, but does not have the cash-flow to front the costs for the duration of the case, some litigation finance companies offer lines of credit to these law firms. In some cases, the financing can be shared between the attorney and the client.
For business lawsuits, one should never typically expect (or want) their attorney to take this kind of position. You will usually see this kind of transaction occur when the matter holds some kind of larger societal impact. For most routine business litigation that will not have a large effect outside of that case, most attorneys expect to be paid up-front, or as the case progresses. In the end, this ensures better representation for the client, as the attorney or law firm has a roof over its head, living expenses paid, and can focus on doing an excellent job for the client. After all, it’s important to have legal counsel that is actually able to help.