Litigation Asia Pacific Webinar Series – Navigating litigation funding in the Asia-Pacific region

Kosuke Tsunashima represents domestic and international clients across diverse industries in litigation, mediation, arbitration, and other forms of dispute resolution. His practice covers a wide range of commercial disputes, including those arising from M&A, finance transactions, real estate, product liability and intellectual property. He has extensive experience leading complex mass litigation, including securities litigation and other large-scale disputes. In addition to his dispute resolution practice, Kosuke Tsunashima has substantial experience in corporate matters. He has advised numerous overseas clients on investments into Japan, assisting with the establishment of Japanese branches and subsidiaries, navigating regulatory requirements, and drafting various contracts essential for their business operations in Japan. Kosuke is a graduate of Keio University (LLB, 2008) and received his LLM from University of California, Los Angeles School of Law in 2015. He was admitted to the Bars in Japan in 2009 and New York State in 2017. https://www.amt-law.com/en/professionals/profile/KOT

Jacob Varghese is an experienced litigator and currently chief executive of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers, Australia's leading plaintiff law firm. Jacob is passionate about increasing ordinary Australians' access to the legal system and the role of collective legal action in improving the behaviour and governance of companies and government. He was a key member of the pioneering class actions team at Maurice Blackburn that established securities class actions on the nation's corporate governance map. He worked on four securities class actions which each achieved settlements in excess of $100 million for shareholders. He also set up the firm’s Australian commercial litigation funding business Claims Funding Australia.

Chris is a Partner and Head of Class Actions at Corrs Chambers Westgarth, specialising in complex representative claims and other bet-the-company litigation. He specialises in class actions, securities litigation, white collar, product liability and property claims. He regularly acts for leading financial services institutions, disclosing entities, international manufacturers, public instrumentalities, professional service providers, and c-suite officers. His expertise is acknowledged in many Australian and international directories, including Chambers Asia Pacific, Who’s Who Legal, Legal 500 Asia Pacific and the Australian Financial Review’s Peer Review. Chris is a member of the Law Council of Australia's Class Action Committee, the National Product Liability Association and the Defence Research Institute.

Jane Colston's practice focuses on complex and high-value commercial banking, contract and tort disputes as well as company, shareholders and partnership disputes. Jane has acted in numerous complex fraud cases and has extensive experience of forensic investigations, most of which have involved working with teams of investigators and accountants, and coordinating lawyers in multiple jurisdictions to trace and freeze assets. She has managed numerous cases involving freezing, proprietary, search, disclosure, gagging, imaging and delivery up injunctions as well as breach of confidence and privacy claims. Jane is also a CEDR Accredited Mediator. Jane has been recognized as a "Global Elite Thought Leader" by Who's Who Legal for asset recovery and peers have called her a "superstar" and “one of the best asset recovery lawyers in London.” The Legal 500 has named Jane a "Leading Individual." Her clients have described her as a "stand-out commercial and fraud litigator." Jane was part of the team which won The Legal 500 award for crime, fraud and licensing in 2018 and 2019. Jane is ranked Band 1 in Chambers for civil fraud. The directory guide commented that she is "one of the top fraud lawyers in London" and "incredibly clear in her strategic thoughts and knowledgeable about civil fraud procedure." She is also ranked in Chambers Litigation Support Guide for asset tracing and recovery. The guide commented that “market peers and clients both past and present consider her to be a strong practitioner and a formidable litigator.” Jane has substantial experience of acting as a supervising solicitor appointed by the Courts of England and Wales in regard to the execution of search, imaging and door-step delivery up orders and leads Brown Rudnick's Supervising Solicitors team. Jane also lectures on topics including the impact of artificial intelligence on the legal and insolvency professions at international conferences such as those hosted by the International Bar Association, C5 Fraud Asset Tracing and Recovery, the Standing International Forum of Commercial Courts and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association and INSOL Academic Group, INSOL Asia Hub and SGRI (SMU). Jane serves as Diversity, Equity & Inclusion partner ("DEI partner"), along with her counterpart Chelsea Mullarney in the New York office. Jane's passion for inclusion extends beyond her role as DEI partner to her practice and external activities. Since 2016, Jane has organized the Firm's Women in Business speaker series, bringing together women lawyers and business professionals from across industries to discuss their careers. Jane also serves as the diversity & inclusion officer for the International Bar Association's Litigation Committee and has spoken at several diversity-related conferences on topics related to inclusion in the legal profession.

Jia Yi is a Partner in Allen & Gledhill LLP's Intellectual Property, Litigation, International Arbitration, and Cybersecurity & Data Protection Practices. Jia Yi’s main areas of practice are commercial litigation and international arbitration, with a specialisation in contentious and non-contentious intellectual property matters involving patents, trade marks, copyright, designs, domain names and confidential information. She has represented clients in a wide range of commercial disputes, including contractual disputes, IP and technology disputes, shareholder disputes and breach of directors’ duties, and employment disputes. Jia Yi currently serves as the Co-Chairperson of the Young Practitioners’ Network and Council Member of the Singapore Institute of Arbitrators (SIArb), Core Committee Member and Co-Chairperson of the Enrichment Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Singapore Arbitration Group. She has been appointed to the Supreme Court of Singapore’s Intellectual Property Court Users’ Committee. She is actively involved in the Law Society of Singapore as a founding member of the Women in Practice Committee and member of the Intellectual Property Practice Committee. Jia Yi graduated from the University of Cambridge with a B.A. (Hons) degree in 2011, where she won several university prizes including the Norton Rose Prize for Commercial Law.

Kristen is the Portfolio Manager – Australia and a Senior Investment Manager for global litigation funder, Omni Bridgeway. Kristen is responsible for overseeing the Australian investments portfolio and leads the Australian Investments Team. Kristen also assists with the development and execution of business strategy in the region.