Junior 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 Unsecured Recoveries team sits within Risk and Litigation services which is part of the firm’s Business Advisory Division.

Our specialist team of paralegals are highly trained to deal with finance and business recoveries using appropriate strategies and to engage with the customer at an early stage of proceedings. We deal with all cases, from routine collections and undefended matters to large significant debt value complex cases.

Within the recoveries team we have several sub teams. We have our own negotiations team, comprising experienced collections staff who engage with customers by telephone and seek to agree sensible repayment terms, primarily in an effort to avoid legal proceedings being issued. We also have teams acting solely for mainstream lenders and debt purchasers to collect outstanding monies. We have a litigation team who issue proceedings and arrange for the enforcement of Judgments obtained. There are various support areas which include a customer relations team dealing with customer complaints.

This role is for a position in the Unsecured Recoveries team based in Manchester. We currently have a requirement for a Junior Paralegal to, among many other responsibilities, collect payments from customers who have outstanding accounts originating across the credit spectrum from prime to near sub-prime financial institutions, all whilst working strictly within the guidelines of the FCA on treating customers fairly.

• Telephone engagement with customers, both inbound and outbound
• Negotiate affordable repayment plans
• Identify early settlement opportunities
• Taking payments from customers
• Use your judgement to ensure all customers are treated fairly in line with FCA guidelines
• Tracing uncontactable customers
• Identify complaints and attempt to resolve the complaint in line with RSG policies and FCA requirements
• Communicate with third party suppliers to assist in recovery activity
• To be familiar with and follow the Unit's policies, procedures and processes
• Comply with all of the division’s and the firm's policies and all regulatory requirements
• Control and manage your workload effectively and efficiently using the relevant case management systems and IS resources and processes appropriately
• Be responsible and accountable for your workload including meeting internal and client SLA requirements
• Be aware of associated areas of law impacting the Unit's delivery of its service
• Recognise any potential issues in cases and refer these appropriately
• Attend and complete any training in a timely manner
• Attend internal and external meetings as required and assist in implementing changes to any Unit procedures.
• Liaise with other internal teams as appropriate
• Assist the Unit in achieving financial targets, other KPIs, management information and meeting budgets.
• Support the Unit with marketing initiatives when required and collating management information

• Confident telephone manner
• IT literate with experience of using Word, Excel and the internet
• Ability to deal with difficult telephone conversations with any of the key stakeholders in the recoveries process confidently and calmly and refer if appropriate
• Good written, numeracy and oral communication skills
• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Ability to prioritise, be organised and efficient
• Flexibility with the capability to adapt to change, new practices and cope under pressure but with the ability to recognise when to seek assistance
• Able to integrate within a team and able to work on your own initiative
• Friendly and helpful approach

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.