As they amass ever-greater capital and legal market expertise, third-party litigation funders are facing a well-financed, heavily lawyered adversary of their own: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which wants to force disclosure of funding agreements in civil actions.

“The transparency argument is, frankly, a red herring,” said Allison Chock, Bentham IMF’s chief investment officer for the U.S. “Their true motivation, as stated in other venues, is to deter the use of litigation finance and gain an advantage for their largest donor-type clients.”