Two legal funding firms started off the new year with senior hires, drafting leaders with years of investment or law firm experience.

Delta Capital Partners Management LLC, a Chicago-based private equity firm specializing in litigation finance, brought on ex-Clifford Chance leader Peter Cornell as its president. Contingency Capital, a legal finance firm founded a few months ago, said that it hired Jeff Cohen, a partner and managing director at Southpaw Asset Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund.

The third-party litigation and legal finance industry has been expanding for years, both in the size of investments and in their growing ranks of managers with Big Law, technology and traditional finance experience.

The sector signaled its maturity in the fall when a group of commercial legal financiers got together to form the industry's first trade group, the International Legal Finance Association. One of its founding members, Burford Capital, also listed on the New York Stock Exchange in October.

Cohen joins Contingency Capital in New York as a partner and managing director, the firm said Thursday in an emailed statement.

He was at Southpaw since it was formed in 2005 and focused there on distressed and special situations investments, including in litigation-oriented opportunities, Contingency Capital said. Southpaw didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on his departure.

Contingency Capital launched in November with up to $1.45 billion in potential commitments. Brandon Baer, the company's founder and a former partner at Fortress Investment Group, said at the time the firm would focus on lending to law firms and portfolio investments, distressed or special situations where litigation is a "primary driver" of an outcome.

At Delta, Cornell joins the management and investment committees and will oversee market activities and international operations. Cornell, based in London, was most recently at a private capital fund adviser he co-founded, Metric Capital Partners. Metric Capital in an email said Cornell is not departing the firm but "rather continuing his collaboration in a non-executive capacity."

Cornell spent nearly 32 years at Clifford Chance, where he served as global managing partner for several years.

In announcing Cornell's hire on Tuesday, Delta also shared that Martin Lueck has been promoted to chief operating officer. Lueck, currently chief underwriting officer, also comes from a law firm background. He joined Delta in April after retiring as executive board chairman of Robins Kaplan, a position he held for 11 years.

UPDATE: This story has been updated to include a statement from Metric Capital indicating that Cornell will continue working with the firm in a non-executive role after his move to Delta.