Senior Business Development Manager

ME Law - Business Litigation Lawyers; Toronto; On-site; CAD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

ME Law, a Canadian litigation boutique with offices in Toronto, is seeking a senior institutional business developer to build major client relationships with financial institutions, corporations, funds, and advisers. You will own the end-to-end commercial process, from targeting to close, with potential for CRO responsibility based on performance.

Candidates should demonstrate a verifiable record of closing significant B2B engagements and comfort with long sales cycles, complex negotiations, and

Qualifications

• Proven record of originated and closed B2B or enterprise opportunities.
• Ability to manage long sales cycles with senior decision-makers.
• Comfort translating complex legal services into business value.

Responsibilities

• Build and manage a focused pipeline of institutional prospects in alignment with ME Law's strategy.
• Develop account plans for high-value relationships, including referrals and cross‑practice opportunities.
• Secure direct access to General Counsel, in-house legal teams, lenders, funds, and trusted advisers.
• Prepare tailored pitches, credentials, proposals, and follow-up strategies.
• Diagnose commercial and legal-service needs and connect opportunities to the appropriate mandate.
• Lead the commercial process from first contact through engagement and initial payment, coordinating lawyers and leadership.

Skills

Institutional sales

High-level networking

Closing deals

Strategic account management

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

CRM systems

Job description

THE OPPORTUNITY

ME Law is seeking a senior business development professional to build relationships with financial institutions, corporations, private lenders, funds, family offices, professional advisers, and other sophisticated buyers of complex litigation and arbitration services. The successful candidate may build toward Chief Revenue Officer responsibility or remain a high-performing institutional business developer. Both are valued career paths.

The firm has already invested in the infrastructure that supports professional origination: CRM & other necessary infrastructure systems, a substantial library of institutional business development training content, pitch materials, marketing support, and direct access to firm leadership. The mandate is to convert that infrastructure into qualified conversations, signed retainers, collected revenue, and durable client relationships.

This is not a marketing‑coordination position, a networking‑only role, or a position in which introductions are handed to lawyers to close. Lawyers will provide legal expertise and participate when their judgment is required.

The person in this role owns the commercial process: targeting, access, qualification, follow‑up, proposal coordination, objection handling, closing, handoff, and relationship expansion.

TWO CREDIBLE PATHS

Institutional Business Development Executive

• Focus on originating and expanding major relationships


• Spend most of your time in market — building, qualifying, closing


• No department management obligation


• Substantial performance‑based earning potential


• Suited to candidates who are strongest as closers and relationship builders

Chief Revenue Officer

• Build and lead the firm's revenue function after proving individual performance


• Add responsibility for revenue strategy, pipeline discipline, and forecasting


• Recruit, develop, and coach business development personnel


• Carry firm‑wide commercial accountability


• Leadership follows demonstrated execution — the title is not granted in place of results

What Ownership Means In This Role

• You pursue outcomes, not activity. Meetings, introductions, emails, proposals, and events matter only insofar as they advance a qualified opportunity.


• You qualify before consuming substantial lawyer or executive time: decision‑maker, institutional fit, need, authority, timing, budget, commercial value, and realistic path to engagement.


• You prepare for every material conversation, control next steps, maintain momentum, and follow through until there is a clear win, loss, or reason to pause.


• You do not outsource the close to the Principal or Supervisory Lawyers. You determine what support is needed, brief the right person, and remain accountable for the commercial outcome.


• You maintain accurate pipeline records, a credible forecast, and a pipeline that can withstand scrutiny. Problems are raised early, with a proposed response.


• You learn enough about the firm's services and clients to speak credibly, while recognizing that legal advice and professional judgment remain with the lawyers.

CORE MANDATE

• Build and manage a focused pipeline of institutional prospects aligned with ME Law's strategy and capacity


• Develop account plans for high‑value relationships, including referral channels, multiple internal stakeholders, recurring work, and cross‑practice opportunities


• Secure direct access to executives, General Counsel, in‑house legal teams, lenders, fund managers, insolvency professionals, boards, owners, and trusted advisers


• Prepare and coordinate tailored pitches, credentials materials, proposals, and follow‑up strategies proportionate to the value and maturity of the opportunity


• Diagnose commercial and legal‑service needs, qualify opportunities, and connect them to a relevant litigation, arbitration, enforcement, or advisory mandate


• Protect the firm's premium positioning by pursuing suitable clients and commercially sound mandates rather than relying on discounting


• Lead the commercial process from first contact through signed engagement and initial payment, coordinating lawyers and leadership without transferring ownership to them


• Track conversion, pipeline velocity, mandate value, collected revenue, relationship quality, and retention; identify what is not working and correct it

MARKET AND PRACTICE FOCUS

• Financial institutions, private lenders, mortgage administrators, investment funds, family offices, and insurers


• Complex commercial litigation, shareholder and partnership disputes, fraud and asset recovery


• Corporations, boards, executives, shareholders, developers, property owners, and sophisticated private enterprises


• Injunctions, receivership and insolvency proceedings, and secured‑creditor enforcement


• Receivers, trustees, restructuring professionals, forensic accountants, and transaction advisers


• Financial‑markets disputes, cross‑border litigation, and international commercial arbitration


• Law firms requiring conflict counsel, specialized litigation support, or arbitration co‑counsel


• Sophisticated counterparties with Canadian legal exposure across Ontario and British Columbia

What You Bring

• A verifiable record of personally originating and closing significant B2B, enterprise, institutional, or professional‑services engagements


• The judgment to distinguish a promising institutional opportunity from an attractive but unqualified conversation


• Confidence and credibility with senior decision‑makers, combined with the discipline to manage detailed follow‑up and a long sales cycle


• Strong discovery, presentation, negotiation, objection‑handling, and closing ability


• Comfort with clear commercial expectations, transparent reporting, and performance‑based compensation


• The ability to learn a sophisticated service offering quickly and translate it into business relevance without overstating legal capability or promising outcomes


• Professional writing, sound judgment, discretion, and respect for confidentiality and regulatory limits applicable to a law firm

Experience

Legal‑sector experience is useful but not mandatory. Strong candidates may come from enterprise sales, financial services, insurance, insolvency and restructuring, consulting, legal technology, accounting, executive search, or another high‑trust professional‑services environment.

Candidates without legal‑industry experience must be able to show a serious closing record and a realistic learning curve. Candidates with legal or institutional relationships must be able to demonstrate how those relationships became mandates or revenue — not merely meetings, introductions, or general market visibility.

SUCCESS IN THE ROLE

Success will be evaluated primarily by the quality and value of mandates originated, collected revenue, conversion performance, pipeline credibility, retention and expansion of client relationships, and the candidate's command of the full commercial process. Activity measures help diagnose performance; they do not substitute for results.

The initial period will establish whether the candidate can learn the practice, build a credible pipeline, create qualified opportunities, and advance them with urgency and judgment. Detailed targets, attribution rules, commission mechanics, and longer‑term leadership milestones will be set out in the applicable compensation and performance plan.

Compensation And Development

The position carries a three‑month probationary period. During this period, the candidate operates on a commission‑only basis. No base salary is payable during probation. The firm's investment in this phase is practice access, CRM & other infrastructure, training, and direct time with firm leadership. The firm is not structured to compensate the learning period — that is the candidate's investment in the role.

Following successful completion of the probationary period, the full compensation structure activates. Two structures are available: a commission‑led model for candidates who prefer direct earnings exposure from the outset, and a fixed‑plus‑variable model for candidates with a demonstrable institutional closing record who prefer income stability alongside performance upside.

A portion of performance compensation — including client origination bonuses and long‑term participation arrangements — is structured as deferred. It is earned upon qualification but does not pay out until the candidate has maintained continuous service for a minimum of six months from the commencement date. This mirrors the firm's standard approach to senior compensation across its legal and business development functions: the structure rewards those who remain and build, not those who originate and exit.

Specific terms are discussed early in the interview process, not at the conclusion of it. The firm's objective is to align compensation with sustained commercial performance — not to cap earnings for candidates whose contribution to the practice is measurable and growing.

A candidate who proves repeatable performance may choose to remain a senior originator or be considered for progressive CRO responsibility. What is not open is separating seniority, title, or compensation from commercial accountability.

About Me Law

ME Law Professional Corporation is a Canadian litigation boutique with offices in Toronto (Yorkville) and Vancouver. The firm represents corporations, financial institutions, entrepreneurs, executives, shareholders, lenders, investors, trustees, and other sophisticated parties in complex commercial, financial, insolvency, real estate, estate, cross‑border, and arbitration matters.

ME Law is building an AI‑native litigation practice that combines high‑level advocacy with disciplined systems, modern operational infrastructure, and a growing institutional practice. The firm has 12+ legal professionals, appears regularly before the Toronto Commercial List, and maintains an active international arbitration practice with co‑counsel relationships in the United Kingdom. It is seeking a commercial leader or senior originator who wants to help shape that growth.