A New And Interesting Opportunity For Litigators

In my work as a legal recruiter, I speak every day with lawyers looking for new opportunities. Because of my background and contacts in litigation, many of the candidates I connect with are litigators.

As law firms continue to roll back their austerity measures and even announce fall bonuses, they are starting to pick up their hiring as well. For litigators with superb credentials — a strong academic record from a top-14 law school, one or more federal clerkships, and experience at a top-10 law firm — opportunities can be found.

And for litigators looking to explore non-firm opportunities, there are options as well. These opportunities are also highly competitive, but the required credentials and background are quite different from those sought by firms.

Here’s an excellent example — and an excellent opportunity.

A rapidly growing litigation finance firm is looking for a director of business development to help the firm find high-quality investment opportunities. The focus of the role is on originations — sourcing new matters to invest in, as well as building long-term relationships with deal sources — and so the successful candidate will have a strong background in both litigation and sales.

Here are the requirements for the role:

• 10-plus years of total work experience
• a law degree (J.D.)
• experience with complex litigation
• at least three years of experience in sales or business development in the legal sector, ideally with the marketing and selling of sophisticated, big-ticket products or services to lawyers or law firms
• experience with frequent business travel in the past and a willingness to be on the road at least 50 percent of the time
• integrity, enthusiasm, and a team-oriented approach

Because of the travel involved, a somewhat central location in the United States would make the most sense (e.g., Chicago, Dallas, or Houston). But the fund is flexible on location as long as the candidate is willing to travel to both the East and West Coasts on a regular basis.

This position represents a superb opportunity to join a successful, growing player in an exciting and dynamic new field. It offers geographical flexibility as well as flexibility with one’s schedule; the firm is not particular about where or when the hire works, as long as the individual delivers results. The compensation is excellent: a six-figure base salary, plus the potential to earn multiples of that through incentive-based compensation tied to performance.

If you have both the litigation and sales background to be a competitive candidate for this position, please feel free to reach out to me to learn more. Thanks, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Ed. note: This is the latest installment in a series of posts from Lateral Link’s team of expert contributors. This post is by David Lat, a managing director in the New York office, where he focuses on placing top associates, partners and partner groups into preeminent law firms around the country.

Prior to joining Lateral Link, David founded and served as managing editor of Above the Law. Prior to launching Above the Law, he worked as a federal prosecutor, a litigation associate at Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz in New York, and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. David is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at dlat@laterallink.com.

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