Kanika Shah is a Director on Burford Capital’s US commercial investment team based in New York, where she focuses on assessing and underwriting legal risk for complex commercial litigation and arbitration matters. In this role, she evaluates potential investments, conducts rigorous legal and financial diligence and helps structure litigation finance solutions for corporate claimants and law firms pursuing high-value disputes.

Before joining Burford, Kanika was at Fortress Investment Group, an investment professional, where she originated and evaluated legal finance investments. That experience gave her deep exposure to the financial side of litigation funding, including analyzing case merits, assessing risk and structuring transactions that align legal outcomes with investment performance.

Earlier in her career, Kanika practiced complex commercial litigation at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, representing clients in high-stakes business disputes. She also served as a law clerk to the Honorable William F. Kuntz, II of the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, gaining firsthand insight into federal litigation and judicial decision-making.

Kanika earned her JD from Columbia Law School and her BA, cum laude, from the University of California, Irvine. Her combined experience as a litigator and legal finance investment professional gives her a multi-dimensional perspective on evaluating legal claims, structuring capital solutions and helping companies and law firms approach litigation as a strategic asset.