Paralegal

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.

The role sits within the Receivables team which is part of our Risk & Litigation Services department. The Receivables team acts for the firm’s clients in the recovery of debts and enforcement of guarantees. 

The role involves conducting litigation, enforcement and insolvency proceedings, dealing with clients, debtors and representatives, courts and agents by telephone, in correspondence and in person.

• Processing of pre-legal debt recovery referrals
• Dealing with key stages of litigation and insolvency within a case management system
• Negotiating repayment(s) and/or settlements
• Maintaining integrity of data for own case load
• Ensuring electronic post and emails are correctly catalogued and saved to  relevant files on a daily basis
• Assisting with the compilation of client reports
• To achieve and maintain an up to date task list
• Assisting with client billing and collection of unpaid client invoices
• To maintain a professional manner within the office environment, with clients and any other third parties
• To answer and return calls in accordance with the firms policy and client's Service Level  Agreements
• To comply with client Service Level Agreements
• To complete tasks/activities upon instruction of a Team Leader or other senior member of the team/department

• Degree, LPC or Ilex qualification preferred.
• Previous legal experience in Debt Recovery, Insolvency or Credit Control, or previous Paralegal experience within a Law Firm
• Excellent client care skills
• Self confidence and ability to demonstrate initiative
• Ability to grasp things quickly and easily.
• Enthusiastic with a positive, can do attitude
• Good working knowledge of various applications – word, excel, outlook
• Taking care and attention into all correspondence and documentation
• Flexible with the ability to adapt to change, new practices and remain calm under pressure and find solutions
• A methodical and organised approach with keen attention paid to every detail
• Excellent organisational skills are required for this role to ensure that the tasks are effectively scheduled within working time available, and that urgent work is completed and returned within the specified timescales.
• Friendly and helpful approach to dealing with queries
• Excellent communication skills
• Able to integrate within a team as well as working on ones own initiative
• Ability to deliver a quality service to both internal and external clients.

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.