Litigation Funding, Time-Limited Demands, and the Making of a Nuclear Verdict

Fiona A. Chaney, Senior Investment Manager and Legal Counsel | Omni Bridgeway

Fiona A. Chaney is a Senior Investment Manager and Legal Counsel at Omni Bridgeway, where she heads the Los Angeles office and co-leads the company’s insurance initiatives. Before joining Omni Bridgeway, she practiced as a trial lawyer for 15 years, specializing in insurance coverage with an emphasis on the entertainment, sports, and energy industries. During her legal practice, she was a member of Chambers Global-ranked groups at both AmLaw 100 and boutique firms, including Howrey LLP, Perkins Coie, Dickstein Shapiro, and Pasich LLP. In her legal finance role, Fiona advises and consults with claimants, lawyers, law firms, and companies, bringing the perspective of a lawyer familiar with the challenges faced by both large and small law firms as well as the cost pressures faced by clients. Her work includes due diligence and indepth analysis of the viability of potential funded matters for Omni Bridgeway, while stopping short of controlling litigation.

• Education & Credentials

Fiona earned her J.D. from Loyola Law School, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of San Diego. She is also an editor and co-author of the New Appleman Sports and Entertainment Insurance Law & Practice Guide, published by LexisNexis in 2014.

• Recognition & Leadership

Fiona’s work in the legal finance industry has been consistently recognized in Who’s Who Legal: Thought Leaders – Third Party Funding Guide since 2020. During her legal practice, she was also a member of Chambers Global-ranked groups at both AmLaw 100 and boutique firms. At Omni Bridgeway, she heads the Los Angeles office and co-leads the company’s insurance initiatives.

• Professional Involvement

Fiona has been involved in numerous professional and educational programs concerning litigation finance, insurance coverage, litigation funding, case valuation, and related legal issues. Her speaking engagements have included programs for the American Bar Association, Association of Corporate Counsel, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, Defense Research Institute, Orange County Bar Association, Practising Law Institute, Chambers and Partners, Southwestern Law School, and other legal and professional organizations. She has also authored and co-authored publications addressing litigation finance, insurance coverage disputes, legal department cost management, and related issues.

• Experience

Fiona brings 15 years of experience as a trial lawyer specializing in insurance coverage, with particular emphasis on the entertainment, sports, and energy industries. Her prior firms include Howrey LLP, Perkins Coie, Dickstein Shapiro, and Pasich LLP. At Omni Bridgeway, she serves as Senior Investment Manager and Legal Counsel, heads the Los Angeles office, and co-leads the company’s insurance initiatives. Her responsibilities include providing consultation to claimants, lawyers, law firms, and companies, conducting due diligence, and performing in-depth analysis of potential funded matters while maintaining a role that stops short of controlling litigation.

Dorothy V. DiFiore, Partner | Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A

Dorothy V. DiFiore is a partner in the Tampa office of Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A., with extensive experience in appellate work and legal research, representing clients in both litigation and appeals. Her practice focuses on insurance coverage and appeals for all personal and commercial lines, business and insurance defense litigation and appeals, PIP and fraud litigation and appeals, family law litigation and appeals, and appellate writs for adverse discovery and other interlocutory rulings. Throughout her more than 30 years of practice, she has represented a variety of corporate and institutional organizations as well as individual clients, and her defense experience is complemented by her contrasting experience representing injured persons in workers’ compensation claims and all types of personal injury litigation.

• Education & Credentials

Ms. DiFiore received her Juris Doctor cum laude from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida in 1992, and her Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Florida in 1987 with a major in mass communications. While in law school, she authored the Note Chisom v. Roemer: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, 21 Stetson Law Review 985 (Summer 1992), received the trial advocacy award, and was the recipient of the Book Award in Real Property II. She is licensed to practice law in Florida and California, is a member of The Florida Bar and the State Bar of California, and is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Middle and Southern Districts of Florida and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Ms. DiFiore received the Pro Bono Award from the Hillsborough County Bar Association in 2003. She served as a member of the Florida Bar Grievance Committee for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit from 2004 to 2006, chairing the committee in 2006 and again in 2013–2014, and served on the Board of Directors of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers from 1997 to 2005. She was also a member of the Judicial Nominating Commission for the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit from 2014 to 2017.

• Professional Involvement

Ms. DiFiore is committed to serving her legal community and has been active on multiple bar committees at both the local and state level. She has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1992 and the California State Bar since 2002, and belongs to the Florida Bar’s Appellate Section (2000–present) and Trial Lawyers’ Section (1993–present). She served on the Appellate Court Rules Committee from 2009 to 2015 and the Small Claims Rules Committee from 2005 to 2008. She has been a member of the Hillsborough County Bar Association since 1992, including its Appellate Section, and of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers from 1993 to 2008 and 2012 to present. She is also involved with the Florida Defense Lawyers Association, the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, and the Medical Claims Defense Network.

• Experience

Prior to focusing her practice on insurance coverage and appeals, Ms. DiFiore worked as a litigator on all aspects of civil litigation, and her work in bad faith claims complements her coverage work, positioning her to provide a unique array of advice and representation. She has extensive experience in automobile defense litigation, including UM and PIP, and serves as an attorney fee expert in first party litigation and appeals; to bring balance to her practice and assist in underserved areas of the law, she has also worked on a variety of family law cases, including divorces, custody disputes, and dependency cases. She joined QPWB from a small insurance defense practice in Tampa, Florida, where since 2007 she managed the firm’s appellate and trial support department, handled appellate and complex motion filings, provided coverage opinions to insurance clients, litigated coverage claims, and represented clients in actions involving insurance coverage, PIP, BI, UM, extra-contractual defense, family law, and commercial litigation. Her work includes numerous published appellate opinions in insurance coverage, liability, PIP, family law, and workers’ compensation matters.

SESSION 1 – Understanding the Current Regulatory State of Commercial Litigation Funding | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session examines recent state litigation funding disclosure statutes — including enactments in Georgia, Kansas, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, and additional states — and provides practitioners with a practical framework for understanding how these new laws, as well as applicable laws and rules, affect discovery involving third-party litigation funding (TPLF) agreements.  Whether engaged in affirmative or defensive litigation, this session will equip lawyers with a framework for understanding the role funders play, what disclosure obligations may apply in a given jurisdiction, and how courts evaluate funding in particular cases. By the end of this session, attendees will be able to assess whether a case may be fundable, evaluate applicable disclosure obligations across jurisdictions, and incorporate TPLF-related discovery considerations into litigation strategy.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Time-Limited Policy-Limits Demands: The Set-Up, the Response, and the Bad Faith Case that Follows | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session examines time-limited policy-limits demands from both sides of the coverage dispute — how plaintiff attorneys construct them as strategic bad-faith set-ups, what insurer response obligations now require under new statutory frameworks in California, Georgia, and Florida, and how bad-faith litigation unfolds when the insurer missteps. Attorneys will learn the mechanics of compliant and non-compliant demands, the safe-harbor procedures available to insurers, and the extracontractual exposure that follows a failed response. Attendees gain competency in identifying triggering conditions, structuring or challenging demand letters, and advising clients in the immediate aftermath of a policy-limits demand.