Director, Litigation Business Development

Affirm Partners
Chicago, IL

Our client, a premier global law firm, is building a dedicated Business Development function for its Litigation practice. This is the founding role: a senior, client-savvy professional whose primary mission is to help elite litigators win mandates. It is fundamentally a business development role, not marketing. As the function scales, practice-area specialists will be added and this Director will help build the team.



WHAT YOU'LL DO

  • Owning BD strategy across the litigation platform, including mass torts, antitrust, complex commercial, white collar, appellate and beyond
  • Leading the client pitch process end-to-end: diligencing opportunities, developing strategy, overseeing materials and preparing teams to execute and win
  • Building and managing a structured opportunity pipeline across both existing client expansion and new client development
  • Overseeing market intelligence and competitive analytics, including tracking emerging litigation trends, docket activity and competitor positioning to identify and execute on growth opportunities
  • Serving as the senior liaison across firm management, practice group leadership, and the firm's KM and AI functions to supercharge business development


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Market Intelligence and New Business

  • Proactively identify emerging litigation opportunities before clients come to the firm
  • Monitor mass torts, antitrust, white collar, commercial disputes, and MDL filings for partner-level leads
  • Leverage legal analytics platforms and AI tools to surface whitespace in the client base and broader market
  • Maintain a structured opportunity pipeline and bring leads to partners with context and a point of view


Client Relationship Development

  • Identify expansion opportunities within existing client relationships across practice areas
  • Develop fluency in clients' legal exposure profiles and outside counsel decision structures
  • Surface cross-sell opportunities between Litigation and corporate and restructuring practices


Function Buildout

  • Audit existing BD activity and develop a roadmap; establish systems and workflows to scale the function
  • Integrate AI-enabled analytics into the BD workflow alongside the firm's innovation team


WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

  • Current or former practicing litigator with 8+ years of experience in BigLaw, in-house, or litigation finance
  • J.D. required; conversant across mass torts, antitrust, commercial litigation, white collar, and appellate
  • Demonstrated ability to identify and pursue business opportunities
  • Credible peer to elite litigation partners who earns trust through knowledge and judgment

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