As part of the ICLG Global Class Actions Symposium, Claire Van der Zant, Director of Strategic Partnerships, chaired the Payments panel session.
Claire was joined on stage by Polly Blenkin, Senior Partner at Milberg London LLP, and Clinton Smith, Co-founder and CIO of Case Pilots, bringing together key voices from across the class actions ecosystem.
Key discussion points
This panel discussion brought together experts from across the litigation space to discuss the key challenges of distributing compensation funds to claimants. A core focus of the session was to debunk that payments are the "easy part" of mass tort. The panel covered areas such as:
When to start thinking about payments
Data management and cleansing
The role of technology
Claimant communications
The key takeaway from the conversation is that success is driven by trust, transparency and collaboration.
You can read our full write-up of the discussion, or rewatch the panel session (see links below).
Watch the recording
The panel session was filmed and the recording is available to watch on the GLG YouTube channel.
Speakers
Discussion chairperson
The event was chaired by Claire Van der Zant, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Shieldpay.
Panel
Polly Blenkin, Senior Partner, Milberg
Polly is a senior partner at Milberg London, a claimant group action firm. Polly began her career as a transactional lawyer working on commercial real estate debt securitisations, loan servicing, structured finance and restructuring deals, before becoming a litigator at Mishcon de Reya. Polly now specialises in group claims against large institutional defendants and is part of the team at Milberg London acting on behalf of over 100,000 motorists in various emissions claims. Polly also continues to work on general commercial disputes and investigations within Milberg London’s private client practice.
Polly is mentioned in the Legal500’s 2022 Firms to Watch category for Commercial Litigation: Premium. In 2022, Polly was named as one of three finalists in the Solicitor of the Year category at The Inspiration Women in Law Awards. Polly was also a finalist for the Law Firm Leader of the Year (Small-to-Medium-Sized Practice) in the Women and Diversity in Law Awards 2023.
Outside of the law, Polly is also a founding committee member for The AdAmi Project and serves on the charity’s board of trustees.
Clinton Smith
Clinton Smith (CIO, Case Pilots), is an accomplished developer with over 15 years’ experience designing, developing and maintaining robust technical solutions and workflows to support collective actions – including development of case management applications, information gathering web interfaces, sophisticated quantum calculation programs and document management/review tools.
In addition to providing litigation support services to law firms, Clinton has worked with advertising and marketing executives handling high-through-put applications delivering location-based advertising and reporting. Clinton has also worked with corporate clients and their lawyers analysing extensive, fragmented data sets from various sources in support of multi-party actions.
His combined experience in both sectors is invaluable in designing notice and administration programs that are accessible to class members and drive participation.
The symposium is the premier annual event for international class actions specialists. It is a two day conference, focusing on top-level discussion and debate on the most pressing matters in the group litigation market.
