(Reuters) - Litigation funder LexShares has brought on a new director of risk and deputy general counsel, expanding its ranks a few months after opening its second fund with a $100 million target size.

The Boston-based company, which focuses on the midsize commercial litigation market, has "grown dramatically" since its inception in 2014, said co-founder and chief executive Jay Greenberg. Hiring Kenneth Harmon, a former federal prosecutor, is the latest example, Greenberg said in an interview.

Harmon served for 19 years as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Colorado and for nine years in the Southern District of Florida, LexShares said in announcing his hire Tuesday. He most recently practiced at Denver law firm Springer & Steinberg, and earlier in his career was a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison.

Harmon said in a statement he has "long admired LexShares' approach to investing in legal claims." As a member of the firm's investments group, he'll evaluate and service a "growing pipeline" of claim investment opportunities, the firm said.

Greenberg said LexShares is seeing a "larger number of portfolio finance opportunities for law firms directly." The company's focus on single-case financing over the past six years has "entrenched" it with law firms, he said, creating new funding options.

Greenberg, a former investment banker at Deutsche Bank, founded LexShares with Max Volsky, who serves as chief investment officer. LexShares finances litigation assets through its online marketplace for individual and institutional investors and its litigation finance fund. The launch of its most recent fund in June came after it closed its first in January 2018 at $25 million. The opening of the second fund followed LexShares' 100th legal claim investment, it said.

The company's average investment size has grown 60% year-over-year to $1.63 million as of the end of August, LexShares said. That still sets the company apart from larger commercial litigation funders such as Burford Capital, whose average commitment has been pegged at over $20 million.

Part of what sets LexShares apart, Greenberg said, its "tech-enabled approach" to identifying investment opportunities. The company's origination software, "Diamond Mine", which it launched in 2016, now accounts for more than 75% of the deals the company considers, he said.