BridgePoint’s legacy: trust over transactions

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With strong relationships and social justice at its core, BridgePoint Financial has spent two decades empowering law firms and their clients through innovation, strategic support, and a commitment to making a difference

BridgePoint’s origins can be traced to a problem both common and consequential. For many accident victims, the end of insurance benefits meant mounting bills, stalled rehabilitation, and very few financial options while awaiting the resolution of their legal claims. The personal injury lawyers representing them saw the strain but had limited means to help. It was Cathy Martin-Pauwels, then a case manager, who recognized the gap and raised it with her now husband, Stephen Pauwels, a corporate finance professional at the time. “She was frustrated by how financial pressures posed a barrier to her clients’ recovery efforts. That’s where the seed of our business was germinated,” Pauwels recalls. “I applied a banking lens and recognized that no traditional lender would assist these people. They really needed someone with a specialized understanding and appreciation of their predicament and the litigation process to design a funding solution to help bridge the gap until their settlement.” Shared overarching interest and complementary skill setsEnter John Rossos, Pauwels’ investment banking colleague who also trained as a lawyer and was called to the Ontario bar. Pauwels brought the concept to him, and Rossos was immediately intrigued. Far from a detached financial product, Pauwels was suggesting a professional lending service born out of empathy for individuals in vulnerable situations. “What really resonated was the fact that the business would create a level playing field,” Rossos explains. “That has always been important to us; it’s embedded in the DNA of our company, and what makes BridgePoint unique.” With what they refer to as “a shared overarching interest and complementary skill sets,” the duo forged onward. They didn’t just flip a switch and start providing funding to claimants instantly, Pauwels notes. It involved conversations over time with several leading personal injury lawyers to get a handle on their views and market insights.

BridgePoint Financial has been the leader in Canada’s legal finance market since 2005, offering the most innovative and strategic funding solutions with an unwavering focus on client service. Thanks to an unparalleled record, we have trusted relationships with over 1,500 law firms across the country. We do not take that trust lightly and continually develop our industry-leading products, providing an exceptional experience and favourable outcomes for the law firms and their clients who we assist in the personal injury, wills & estates, family law, and class action practice areas.

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“We look for opportunities to meet needs in the market, as told to us by the lawyers themselves. We’re always adapting and responding, and that responsiveness and intimate understanding is really a key part of our success”

Stephen Pauwels, BridgePoint

Published September 29, 2025

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“I’d like to think that, when any type of novel situation happens for law firms, the instinct is, ‘let’s see if BridgePoint can help.’ We want to be the first call, and I think that’s the position we’re in now”

John Rossos, BridgePoint

For Pauwels, the feedback “was enormously validating,” he recalls. “They fully reiterated what Cathy had identified as a significant access-to-justice barrier in the market and the opportunity for a lender with a specialized approach and the proper tools to address it – of course, adopting responsible lending terms, but reflective of the realities of the market. It gave me confidence to make the leap from my banking career into a much more entrepreneurial setting.” From empathy to enterprise: building a trust-based legal finance solutionThose initial conversations two decades ago also sent a strong message: lawyers wanted a funding partner they could trust. Rossos points to solicitor-client privilege as

one of the most protected relationships in society. Having lawyers trust BridgePoint to protect their clients’ information and offer trusted lending services in their clients’ best interests was fundamental to the business from those early days. “It became paramount for us to convey that the information shared is only used to provide responsible financing on a timely basis, and it will not be compromised in any way, shape, or form,” he says. As BridgePoint gained its foothold in the market, its reputation consistently preceded it. There was none of the impersonal, transactional nature many might expect from a lender. The pair were focused on building trusted relationships with lawyers and law firms who recognized the value BridgePoint provided by helping them help their clients – a philosophy they still maintain. Evolving the service offering to financing the law firms themselves Through their growing relationships with the legal community, and borrowing from their corporate finance backgrounds, Pauwels and Rossos soon recognized that the law firms themselves, working on contingency fee models, often laboured under significant cash flow challenges. Again, traditional lenders’ conservative methodologies fell short of the unique challenges faced by these firms, including the onerous responsibility of managing substantial disbursements.

In an effort to cement themselves as a strategic partner to the firms, BridgePoint set its sights beyond settlement advances. “We’ve always used our expertise to stay ahead of, predict, and foresee legislative and operational challenges that law firms face and build truly powerful solutions that not only enable them to streamline their processes but grow their success.” “Lawyers, especially those on contingency, are denied access to sources of external financing that virtually any other business can leverage, and we heard them loud and clear. We created specialized disbursement funding solutions that no other lender could,” Pauwels says. “We understand the business model and the value of those investments in active cases that a traditional lender would never consider.”

To address the changing demographics of Canadian legal practices, BridgePoint is also tackling succession planning, recognizing that many law firms are in the throes of an aging partnership and the complexities of transitioning leadership. Having access to capital ensures a smoother transition for new partners seeking to buy a stake in a retiring partner’s legal practice. Along with the law firm lending services, which include complementing products Expert Access and File Funder, BridgePoint expanded into the estates space with inheritance advances for beneficiaries, executor expense advances, and estate litigation funding, and further into First Nations treaty claim finance and class actions. “I’d like to think that, when any type of novel situation happens for law firms, the instinct is, ‘let’s see if BridgePoint can help,” Rossos says. “We want to be the first call, and I think that’s the position we’re in now.” Propelling BridgePoint to true partnershipWith innovation a constant theme in BridgePoint’s journey, the lender developed a proprietary technology portal that underpins efficiency and the importance of data. The platform streamlines the funding process and has become an online marketplace connecting law firms with legal experts, offering an integrated source of finance for the acquisition of expert reports. The BridgePoint Portal allows lawyers to find the right experts and seamlessly fund their reports. Over the past eight years, law firms have processed thousands of transactions using the portal, leveraging its rich repository of data to track disbursements and case outcomes. BridgePoint is the only funding service that provides tracking on a per-client-matter basis, offering the ability to monitor and generate individual client statements. These features not only make BridgePoint’s services more accessible and transparent but also position the company once again as a true partner. “We look for opportunities to meet needs in the market, as told to us by the lawyers themselves,” Pauwels explains, adding that that’s how BridgePoint came to serve the law firms and not just their clients. “We’re always adapting and responding, and that responsiveness and intimate understanding is really a key part of our success.” Sitting on hundreds of thousands of transactions that have been processed over time, this data is not only useful for BridgePoint itself in terms of how its funding is positioned and monitored but could also be used as a metric of success for clients. “It’s very useful for firms to benchmark their performance and optimize services that they offer to their clients,” Rossos says. “We’re key in terms of helping firms leverage our technology to make better decisions and process and track transactions much more quickly. For those that embrace this innovation, it becomes a competitive advantage.” Also supporting the strategic partner objective is the evolution of the BridgePoint team. Pauwels and Rossos may be the visionaries, but they’re quick to insist they could never have done this alone. Still a lean and entrepreneurial organization at its core, the company boasts an energetic, creative, and solutions-oriented team with diverse skill sets. “We assembled the right people who helped take this business into many new and intriguing areas,” Pauwels explains. “Without them, the business would not be what it is.” Built on experience, evolving with purposeAfter 20 years and relationships with 1,500 firms across Canada, BridgePoint remains committed to advancing access to justice and providing solutions in areas underserved by traditional institutions. “We cater to the funding needs these firms have,” Pauwels says, irrespective of practice size, type, or stage, whether at inception or transition planning. BridgePoint has also built strong partnerships with law associations across Canada, including Ontario Trial Lawyers Association, Alberta Civil Trial Lawyers Association, Trial Lawyers Association of British Columbia, Atlantic Provinces Trial Lawyers Association, and Canadian Bar Association, to name a few. From its founding vision to its enduring partnerships with lawyers, BridgePoint has grown in step with an everchanging legal industry. That journey has solidified its position as a trusted leader in the field – and the next 20 years hold even greater promise.

READER's CHOICE AWARDS

500+

LAW FIRM FUNDING RELATIONSHIPS

45+

Number of Employees

2005

YEAR FOUNDED

BridgePoint Financial is celebrating 20 years as the leader in Canada's legal finance market, offering the most innovative and strategic funding solutions with an unwavering focus on client service. Thanks to an unparalleled record we have trusted relationships with over 1,500 law firms across the country. We do not take that trust lightly and continually develop our industry-leading products, providing an exceptional experience and favourable outcomes for the law firms and their clients who we assist in the Personal Injury, Wills & Estates, First Nations, and Class Action practice areas.

Company Profile

Canada's Legal Finance Leader

$600,000,000+

FUNDING SINCE INCEPTION

55,000+

CASES FUNDED

A timeline of success

2005

2007

2014

2015

2019

2020

2021

2022

2024

2025

BridgePoint opens its door and provides its first settlement advance

2005

2007

Treatment financing and disbursement funding products are launched

Expert Access launched

2014

2015

$100,000,000 funded

2019

BridgePoint Portal launched

2020

File Funder launched

2021

$300,000,000 funded

2022

Estates Funding Solutions launched

2024

$500,000,000 funded

2025

$600,000,000 funded