Katharine Wolanyk is an IP industry leader, with recognitions including Chambers Band 1 for IP litigation funding, the IAM Strategy 300, and the Lawdragon 100 global leaders in legal finance. Ms Wolanyk served as a public company board director at Acacia Research Corporation. Before joining Burford in 2015, she was president of Soverain Software; general counsel of an internet hosting services provider; senior vice president of corporate development at a publicly-traded enterprise software company; and a corporate attorney at Latham & Watkins. Before law school, she was a systems engineer at Hughes Aircraft Company, where she worked on the radar system for the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Ms Wolanyk earned her JD from the University of Chicago Law School and a BS in engineering from Michigan State University. Founded in 2009, Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm focused on law. Burford is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUR) and works with companies and law firms around the world from its offices in New York, London, Chicago, Washington DC, Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong.