As more capital flows into the coffers of third-party litigation funders, their success depends on finding promising areas to direct their resources. A new deal between litigation funder Longford Capital and the University of California, Santa Barbara suggests traditional law firms can play a role in advancing those ambitions.

Lawyers at Nixon Peabody parlayed their longstanding relationship with the University of California system—and a burgeoning connection with Longford Capital—to structure a novel arrangement backing a patent enforcement campaign against five retailers over energy-saving LED light bulb technology.