General Counsel as Revenue Drivers

Rufus Caine is a Vice President of Burford, responsible for expanding business development efforts to corporate legal departments.

Prior to joining Burford, Mr. Caine served in various roles at Axiom Law, most recently as a Director, where he was accountable for growing a book of business with leading in-house departments and managing executive level relationships, including those at several Fortune 100 companies. Before Axiom, Rufus was a litigation associate at Willkie Farr and Gallagher in Washington, DC and Legislative Counsel in the U.S. Senate where he oversaw a wide range of domestic policy matters.

Mr. Caine earned his BA from Boston College and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist, before earning his JD from the University of Pennsylvania Law School.

Julie is an experienced Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary with a demonstrated history of strategic direction and operation of legal matters in the information services and consumer product industries. She is skilled in the areas of litigation, commercial transactions, employment, intellectual property, insurance, regulatory compliance, privacy and security. She received her JD from Vanderbilt University Law School.

Validity Founder and CEO Ralph Sutton is an industry pioneer and his strategic and operational experience make him a trusted investment manager to clients and law firms.

Mr. Sutton brings a wealth of experience to Validity. Following an 18-year career as a trial attorney, in 2006 he co-founded Credit Suisse’s Litigation Risk Strategies Group, one of the first dispute funding entities in the U.S. He later joined Bentham, where Mr. Sutton helped launch and run the Australian-based funder’s U.S. investment business from 2011-17. During his tenure, Bentham’s U.S. operation expanded to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Houston from its New York base. Mr. Sutton also assisted in the establishment of offices in Toronto and London.

Ralph is a champion of increased access to civil justice and has lectured at Harvard, Stanford, and other law schools. In 2016, under Ralph’s leadership, Bentham helped found a new Civil Justice Research Institute at the University of California, Irvine School of Law.

Ralph graduated from Columbia University and received his J.D. from the New York University School of Law. He served as a law clerk to U.S. District Court Judge G. Thomas Eisele for two years.

Heather Nevitt is the Editor-in-Chief of Corporate Counsel, Inside Counsel and Global Leaders in Law. Heather brings Valuable content to the various publications sites she manages while building communities and developing new event ideas to engage readers.

Heather joined ALM in 2005 and was the Editor-in-Chief of Texas Lawyer. Before joining ALM, she practiced law and earned her JD from Michigan State University College of Law in East Lansing, Michigan.

Tom Sager is the former General Counsel and Senior Vice President at the DuPont Company. In 2014, Tom joined Ballard Spahr as a Partner, where he leverages his experience steering the legal department at a heavily regulated, Fortune 100 global corporation to a broad portfolio of areas at the firm, including litigation and trial practice, internal investigations, environmental issues, and mergers and acquisitions. Tom began his career with the DuPont Company as an attorney in the Labor, Benefits & Corporate Security Group and spent more than a decade as chief litigation counsel before being named Senior Vice President and General Counsel in 2008. During his tenure, he oversaw significant litigation involving governmental investigations, product liability, environmental, toxic tort, labor and employment, securities, antitrust, and tax issues.

Tom was a strong and early proponent of diversity in the legal profession and helped pioneer the DuPont Company Convergence and Law Firm Partnering Program, or the DuPont Company Legal Model—an industry benchmark that has received national acclaim for its innovative approach to the business of practicing law. The program redefined the way in which clients and law firms measure success, encourage creativity and collaboration, increase efficiency, and retain and promote women and minorities. Many of his early innovations, including use of preferred providers and flat or fixed-fee billing, have become commonplace in corporate law departments. In naming him in 2013 as one of “The Top 50 Big Law Innovators,” The American Lawyer wrote: “Thomas Sager and the DuPont Legal Model are to the legal industry what Derek Jeter is to the Yankees.”

Tom received The American Lawyer’s prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. In addition, the Minority Corporate Counsel Association’s Thomas L. Sager Award is given annually to law firms that demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusion.