UniCourt Influencer Q&A with Gary Amos of Golden Pear Funding

Gary Amos, the CEO of Golden Pear Funding, wanted to change the personal injury finance game. By starting Golden Pear, Gary provides quick and efficient funding to get plaintiffs through difficult lawsuits. With the goal of helping plaintiffs through personal injury lawsuits from inception to settlement, Golden Pear uses legal data to change the way specialty finance is delivered.

We loved hearing from Gary and Golden Pear, and hope you find his perspective as insightful as we did!

UniCourt: Tell us your story. What is your background, and what led you to what you are doing now?

Gary Amos: After spending my entire career in large multinational companies like GE and Siemens leading financial services businesses and strategy, I made a decision to change directions.

While I had enriching experiences at both companies that provided me with a solid foundation, my ability to truly drive change and disrupt financial services to impact customer experiences was somewhat limited by the size and hierarchical “big company” approach. Taking on new challenges in a smaller environment where you can lead change at a fast pace was an appealing proposition, and here we are doing just that!

UC: What is Golden Pear Funding? What motivated you to take the CEO role?

GA: Golden Pear is a specialty finance company in the consumer litigation market. We work with law firms and medical providers to advance the needed funds to personal injury plaintiffs as quickly and efficiently as possible, offering service, speed, and ease of use through modern software solutions that attorneys and providers need to focus on pursuing the best case and medical outcomes and largest settlements for the client.

I took the CEO role because I saw an opportunity to lead a team looking to problem solve, provide solutions, and innovate in a space where it wasn’t always evident the client voice was being heard.

Simply put, we wanted to bring impactful solutions to our clients that would substantially improve their ability to manage through the legal process with speed and efficiency all while providing additional value. Our journey isn’t complete, but we’re moving forward every day!

UC: What makes Golden Pear Funding unique and sets you apart from other litigation funding firms?

GA: The voice of the customer drives our agenda, while growth and a natural curiosity for innovation is the fuel behind it. Every Golden Pear client is nurtured by client-facing teams from marketing and sales, to customer success and servicing, to collections. An in-house software engineering team builds and ships portable, low-touch, and intuitive products to Golden Pear clients. The result is a rich ecosystem with fluid expectations that pull the customer forward and ensure that their voice is always heard.

In short, we’re not constrained by “the way things are usually done.” We show up every day to challenge that statement, find new and better ways, streamline processes and connect with other players in the industry that share those same beliefs. We’re committed to a mindful disruption.

UC: What are the biggest trends you see in litigation finance? Are there any emerging headwinds or tailwinds that stand out in your industry? 

GA: Litigation finance is going through a profound transformation; the industry is not as boutique as it once was. Every day, we see more institutional investors in the space, taking ownership roles; as well as investments on the rated debt side through bonds and corporate notes.

Healthy regulations are also making their way throughout the industry. Different states are creating their own laws to make sure the space is regulated and transparent for all parties.

Lastly, litigation finance is about more than just finance now, with many of the big players making substantial investments into technology and healthcare to provide complete ecosystems to their customers. Overall, it is a great moment for the entire industry.

UC: Why should lawyers and law firms use litigation finance? What competitive advantage does it provide and how can it enhance their law practices?

GA: There’s a stigma in litigation finance that comes from an outdated view on what it means and does. Litigation finance needs to be (and is being) redefined as a transparent process where we can help victims in need of financial help to support their quest for justice, where all parties feel supported, appreciated, and content. This is why we focus on the voice of the customer and overall customer satisfaction as much as we do.

The main competitive advantage of litigation finance is the possibility it provides to level the field for plaintiffs who otherwise would’ve been forced into unfair early settlements. We help take away the financial distraction so law firms and plaintiffs can really focus on building their case and getting the best settlement or verdict possible.

UC: How is Golden Pear Funding working to improve access to justice in the United States? Why is this an important focus for your firm?

GA: We’re building an ecosystem that can really support not only our clients but the entire community, from law firms, to medical providers, and ultimately plaintiffs. This ecosystem will serve as a single point of contact where clients can gain access to healthcare and navigate the legal justice system in a single offering, enhancing transparency and leveraging technology and automation to make the process easier for all parties involved.

UC: How is Golden Pear Funding leveraging court data and APIs in the litigation finance space?

GA: We’re an API driven company. Our ecosystem helps our customers by connecting in real time with tools and services that enhance the experience.

By getting a 360° view of a case and juxtaposing it against data that’s already available from third party sources, i.e. data-sets on case types, legal status, geographies, injuries, CPT codes and many others, we can lead the way in building more sophisticated risk and underwriting models. The end customer will feel the impact, as our ambition is to create underwriting models with advanced logic and quicker response times to move the processes ahead.

UC: What are some of your favorite sayings? What are some real-world examples of how you’ve seen those sayings come to life?

GA: We’re always moved by three principles: Innovation, Growth, and Profitability.

One great example is our beta law firm portal – this idea came from Katie Brandt, our VP of Risk Management, and it started as a simple wireframe with the concept of helping our clients provide easy updates to their cases.

By leveraging team work and technology, we’ve built it into a complete beta that our law-firms are using to provide status updates, understand and manage their cases, and request payoffs.

Here’s how it looks like now:

We continue to add new features and are working on making the portal better by incorporating the feedback from this beta version.

UC: What are your goals for 2022? What projects are you working on? 

GA: We want to continue to disrupt our industry by creating symbiotic relationships for plaintiffs, law firms, and healthcare providers. Coming together on a single platform with transparency and solutions to enable them to navigate the Personal Injury  journey from inception to settlement is the goal.

UC: Where can we learn more about you and your work?

GA:

• Gary Amos on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-amos/
• Golden Pear Funding: https://goldenpearfunding.com/
• Golden Pear Funding on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64691469/

Empowering Plaintiffs and Uncomplicating Personal Injury Logistics

Golden Pear is disrupting the personal injury finance industry, providing transparency and efficiency to uncomplicate the logistics of an already devastating time in a plaintiff’s life. We can’t wait to see how Golden Pear will continue to use APIs, legal data, and a customer-centric approach to reshape plaintiff-side finance.

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