One of the first times Howard Shams asked a law firm about financing some of its litigation, its partners were reluctant to talk about the case he liked. Instead, the lawyers pushed toward him a case they knew had a much lower chance of success.

“I said, ‘That’s so adverse selective,’” said Shams, recalling an episode from his days at Credit Suisse AG, where he ran one of the financial services firm’s earliest books investing in litigation. “They were not even embarrassed by it.”