Arizona eliminated the non-lawyer-ownership ban in 2021, creating a licensing regime for investor-owned firms. By March 2026 the program had licensed more than 150 entities; KPMG's law arm was approved in February 2025.
For mass torts, ABS structures are the front door for equity capital into contingency-fee practices — investors can own stakes in the fees themselves, which reshapes how case acquisition gets funded. The same abbreviation is used in finance for asset-backed securitization, which also now touches litigation — context tells you which is meant.
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