Rachel McCarthy on Nonprofit Plaintiff Funding, Industry Reform, and the Fight for Access to Justice

In this episode of Raising the Bar with RebuttalPR, host Ray DeLorenzi sits down with Rachel McCarthy, Executive Director of The Milestone Foundation, a Buffalo-based nonprofit that provides pre- and post-settlement funding to plaintiffs at rates designed to help rather than exploit. 

Rachel shares how a Jesuit education, an AmeriCorps stint in Buffalo, years as a paralegal in New York City, and a detour through the San Francisco tech world eventually led her to John Bair and the founding of what would become The Milestone Foundation. She describes being there at the very beginning, when the organization was little more than a board and an idea, and what it meant to watch it grow into a team serving over 1,000 plaintiffs and working with over 320 law firms nationwide. 

The conversation covers what separates consumer litigation funding from commercial litigation funding and why so many trial lawyers have a hard-line opposition to the practice. Rachel explains how the foundation’s nonprofit model keeps money in the mission and out of anyone’s pocket, and why attorneys who are skeptical of funding companies often come around once they understand what The Milestone Foundation is actually doing. 

Rachel also takes stock of the regulatory moment the industry finds itself in, including New York’s Consumer Litigation Funding Act going into effect this June, and where she sees the biggest gaps still left unaddressed. She closes with the story of a veteran turned quadriplegic who used The Milestone Foundation’s funding to adapt his home to his disability, and a call to the trial lawyer community to support the foundation as it heads into its 10th anniversary year. 

Learn more about The Milestone Foundation here: 

https://www.milestonefoundation.org