Ajamie Hires Houston Trial Lawyer With Litigation Funding Chops

January 20, 2023 at 05:22 PM

Eric Chenoweth has joined litigation boutique Ajamie as senior counsel in Houston, coming off a six-year stint in litigation finance, an experience the trial lawyer said gives him a “great tool” for evaluating the risks of lawsuits.

“The way that a funder has to look at cases … just kind of broadens your experience, just how you see cases and how things unfold going forward,” said Chenoweth, a former partner at Houston trial firm Yetter Coleman.

Chenoweth, who joined the firm on Jan. 9, said it was a good time for him to get back to complex commercial litigation because demand in litigation funding, along with trials, had slowed during the pandemic.

“Things were really booming before, but slowed down and made me step back,” he said.

Thomas Ajamie, founder of the firm, said Chenoweth is an impressive hire because he brings deep trial experience and the firm has an active trial docket, noting that it has handled four major trials over the last four years.

The firm doesn’t use litigation financing for its docket, Ajamie said.

“The fact that he was in the world of finance and [we are] needing a lot of lawyers, that was a really good combination,” Ajamie said.

Chenoweth said he is already plugged into some cases at Ajamie, which does a lot of financial fraud litigation and complex litigation and will build his own docket. He also will help with case evaluation.

Chenoweth left Yetter Coleman in 2017 to join Omni Bridgeway in Houston, and later moved to Siltstone Capital.