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

Stewart Ackerly, Director & Head of Originations | Statera Capital

Stewart Ackerly is a Director at Statera Capital, where he serves as Head of Originations and leads the firm’s business development, client engagement, and public policy initiatives. Based in Washington, D.C., he is responsible for bringing commercial litigation finance to new markets and expanding the universe of lawyers and clients that can use litigation finance to level the playing field and ensure access to justice. A former trial lawyer with experience in both the public and private sectors, he works closely with law firms, companies, and in-house legal departments on how litigation finance can de-risk the pursuit of meritorious disputes.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Ackerly received his B.A. and J.D. from the University of Virginia, where he received numerous honors. In law school, he graduated Order of the Coif, served on the Law Review, and served as the Student Member of the Board of Visitors. He was also the recipient of the Gray-Carrington Memorial Scholarship, the Ernest H. Ern Distinguished Student Award, and the Raven Award.

• Recognition & Leadership

Mr. Ackerly was named to the 2026 Lawdragon 100 Global Leaders in Litigation Finance and is recognized by Chambers USA, where clients and market sources describe him as “a conscientious and thorough evaluator of cases” with “a strong ability to evaluate incoming cases, particularly the risks they present.” He previously served as Chief of Staff at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, the U.S. Government’s $60 billion development bank that facilitates financial solutions to critical challenges in emerging markets, and as Deputy Chief of Staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, where he helped negotiate the USMCA.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Ackerly frequently speaks at bar association meetings, conferences, law firm retreats, and CLE programs about commercial legal finance, best practices for its use, and its growing availability to lawyers and clients with meritorious legal disputes.

• Experience

Before joining Statera Capital, Mr. Ackerly practiced law at Williams & Connolly LLP, one of the world’s preeminent litigation law firms, where he represented Fortune 50 companies, sovereign nations, and other clients as a commercial litigator in complex commercial litigation and arbitration. Earlier in his career, he clerked for Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

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.