One way to track the arc of a concept is to plot its language usage over time. According to the Google Ngram Viewer, a tool that tracks use of words and terms over the past 500 years, the term “corporate social responsibility” emerged around 1970, but remained obscure until the turn of the century. It’s been riding a rocket ever since.
Similarly, the term “environmental, social, [and corporate] governance” emerged in about 2005 and has seen an even sharper uptick in usage. As concepts, neither CSR or ESG are anything new. They trace their origins back to organized labor movements in the mid-20th century, the Vietnam War, and the apartheid era. But they’ve gained incredible traction over the past decade, with proportionate significance for corporations.
“In the last five years it’s gone from ‘what is ESG?’ to ‘why should we care about ESG?’ to ‘do you have ESG?’ to ‘why don’t you have ESG?’”
Founder and CEO
Kerberos Capital Management

A Recent History of ESG Litigation
The Positive Power of Litigation Finance
Litigation finance in the ESG space is widely expected to grow considerably and consistently.
Business Opportunity Meets Social Good
One of Siprut’s goals is to incentivize law firms to pursue ESG cases they otherwise might not.
After 18 years as a practicing lawyer — the time equally split between corporate and plaintiffs’ work — he founded Kerberos with a focus on funding law firms that have quality litigation portfolios. From personal experience, he saw that a lot of law firms are focused more on winning cases and attracting clients than on the nuances of how all the financial pieces fit together. He saw the opportunity not only to provide capital, but to provide support with financial adjustments that can help ensure a litigation practice is profitable over time. Part of that, he says, is the types of cases a firm takes on. In that respect, ESG litigation is ascending.
“Ultimately, it has to be a good case,” he says. “We’re running a business here and we are investing capital. It’s not like we’re going to make a bad bet because we like the ESG attributes. It has to meet the metrics of any good investment. But to the extent that we can do that and then also capture these ESG outcomes, that’s really important.”
This, perhaps, is what makes ESG litigation financing a bit of an outlier. Business is business, as it should be. But rarely do pecuniary objectives align with the greater good. Now, and for the foreseeable future, that may just be the case in this space.
“Each one of us — individually as human beings or as a company — we can all only do so much,” Siprut says. “But if we all do that much, it adds up to a lot. This is one way in which we’re trying to do that and maybe encourage others to do the same.” He’s pragmatic about the effort, consistently noting that at the end of the day, it comes down to what’s most advantageous for investors.
“As a manager, it’s important to recognize that our investors and clients have constituents they report to who are interested in the ESG properties of their allocations,” he says. “By investing in ESG and providing detailed metrics in our reporting, we empower our investors to build those metrics into their own reporting. I think we’re providing a valuable service as well.”