Monetizing the Award: The Emergence of Secondary Markets and ‘Award Flip’ Strategies

Presentation

This event marks the shift of an arbitral award from a ‘legal victory’ to a tradable financial asset in international arbitration.

Unlike general funding panels, this session focuses on the exit strategy: what happens when the claimant doesn't want to wait 3–5 years for enforcement and instead wants to "flip" the award to a specialized fund for immediate cash.

Undoubtedly, the new frontier in Third-party funding arrangements is the secondary market for arbitral awards, where funds buy the award outright at a discount before it is even enforced.
• Why it’s unique: It treats an arbitral award as a financial commodity rather than just a legal victory.
• Practice-Oriented Focus:
o How to structure a ‘partial sale’ of an award to manage litigation risk.
o The ethics of ‘Award Flipping’: Does the lawyer’s duty of confidentiality change when the client is no longer the original party?
o Working with “Discovery Counsel” and private investigators during the arbitration to prep for immediate post-award asset seizure.
o Can an arbitral award be classified as a tradable asset in Islamic law? How can practitioners navigate the 'Public Policy' hurdle in the OIC region?