Legal Cashier

Shoosmiths - UK Law Firm of the Year Winner at the Legal Week British Legal Awards 2015.

A leading UK law firm with a network of offices from the South Coast to Scotland, working together as one national team. An innovative practice and the first top 100 law firm to achieve “Gold Standard” Investors in People, our values and culture are not just words on our website but are the heartbeat of the firm. The lack of barriers between departments, a real lack of hierarchy, zero tolerance for arrogance and pomposity makes Shoosmiths a fantastic place to work.

Our finance team are committed to providing an efficient and accurate service to our legal advisors and to other support functions.  At the centre of this is ensuring that the client and office accounts are kept up to date and invoices are produced accurately and in a timely manner.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Legal Cashier to join our Finance team based in Manchester on a permanent basis. You will be working as part of a local team and a larger firm wide department, supplying an efficient and accurate legal cashiering service for the Legal Advisers in the Manchester and Leeds offices.

This is an excellent opportunity for someone preferably with previous experience within a legal finance environment, to broaden their knowledge and gain new skills. You will need to have excellent communication skills, a keen eye for detail, flexibility and be able to manage your own workload within tight deadlines.

General:

• To understand and ensure compliance with Solicitors’ Accounts Rules in relation to all tasks.
• To avoid any breaches of Solicitors Accounts Rules.
• To ensure that client and office accounts are kept up to date accurately.
• To be approachable/flexible and keen to learn

Key areas:

• Client & Office account transactions;
  • To raise and hand out client & office cheques to LA’s / PA’s on a daily basis.
  • To ensure all cheques received are recorded and banked on a daily basis.
  • To understand & follow agreed procedures for reviewing and operating Bankline
  • To reconcile out of date cheques regularly and to report into the Finance Manager monthly.
  • Sending all CHAPS/International and Faster payments daily within the specified deadlines.
  • To carry out any transfers i.e. client to client, matter to matter, client to bill, client to disbursement and disbursement to disbursements in accordance with Shoosmiths policies.
  • To ensure cheques are cancelled/stopped at the bank when required.
  • To ensure all Client and Office receipts are posted daily.
  • Disbursement records are kept up to date on the accounting system for both client and office requests.
  • Log Anticipated Disbursements onto the ledger when requested and in accordance to Shoosmiths regulations.
  • Post special delivery & other soft charges daily.
• Invoice posting;
  • To input all invoices from Couriers, Companies house etc. onto the accounts system and ensure they are paid within terms and the firm’s policy.
  • To input all invoices for Land Registry and MDA Searchflow & investigate any anomalies daily.
• Billing;
  • To understand the billing process and raise bills on a daily basis.
  • To understand the process of credit notes/write offs/cancellations/foreign invoices
  • To have a full understanding of the VAT treatment of overseas clients
  • Preferable to have knowledge/understanding of E-Billing systems
• General Duties;
  • To understand and ensure compliance with SRA rules in relation to all tasks.
  • Be proactive within the Finance team and be willing to make suggestions where they feel they will make more efficient processes.
  • To cover other team members with holidays or absence.
  • To assist Finance departments at other Shoosmiths sites if required.
  • Complete rate changes when requested.
  • Petty Cash and Stamps when required
  • General daily filing.
  • To ensure all charity cash is counted on a weekly basis and banked the same day or next working day.
  • Ensure there is a sufficient supply of banking books and cheques.
  • Ensure that any problems are appropriately communicated to your Finance manager and/or team and Legal Advisors promptly.
  • Additional hours required during peak times including month end, quarterly and year end.
  • This list is not exhaustive and duties include various other tasks as directed by the Finance Manager.

• Positive with can do attitude
• Excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• Good level of IT literacy ie Excel, Outlook etc
• Have the ability to work under pressure and meet tight deadlines
• Ability to maintain high standards
• Organised with a neat and tidy approach to working practices
• A friendly and helpful approach
• Have a flexible approach to working practices
• Ability to work as part of a small local team but also the bigger Finance team.

Background Checks

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. These checks will include employment references covering the last 5 years, proof of ID, proof of address covering the last 5 years. Personal vetting credit search (which will only highlight Insolvency or County Court Judgements – Should any adverse data show on the Personal Vetting search them any offer of employment made be withdrawn). Terrorism check (against data supplied by the Bank of England) and a basic DBS check previously known as a Criminal Records check.

Shoosmiths is a committed Equal Opportunities employer promoting equality of opportunity. This means that everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, whatever their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.