Evening Trainee Case Handler

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 Recoveries Services Group provides a complete range of debt recovery services utilising cutting edge technology and with specialists dealing with different debt types, all operating under a centralised management structure allowing us to deliver consistently excellent service. Our structure ensures we can provide a full range of volume recoveries and litigation options, whilst ensuring that we have the expertise and experience to deal with complex and technical issues arising from volume recoveries.

Our Unsecured Litigation Team act for a number of banks, building societies, other consumer finance lenders and debt purchasers, dealing with unsecured lending products including loans, credit cards, overdrafts and guarantees, together with advising on unenforceability and PPI mis-selling claims. We also have the expertise and experience to deal with disputed and complex claims, with our defended teams sitting alongside our recoveries teams and able to provide immediate advice, often preventing the escalation of a matter to a full blown defence. Our team is based at the Lakes and consists of a pre-issue and negotiation team, 3 undefended litigation teams and a team dealing with defended and non standard matters. These teams are supported by a customer care team (managing receipt of 1000s of payments per month), an administration team and an audit/training function providing our first line of defence for compliance/regulatory purposes.

Shoosmiths are looking for an Evening Trainee Case Handlers to join our Unsecured Litigation team within our Recoveries Services Practice Group. This is a 6 month fixed-term contract based within our Northampton office and the hours available are as follows:

• Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays 5pm-8pm plus alternate Saturdays (9am-12:45pm)

You role will support the day teams in managing a large caseload, utilising customer service, administration and organisational skills. You will be giving the opportunity to undertake a thorough training and development programme, therefore this is an excellent opportunity for someone looking to gain legal experience within a prestigious Recoveries Services Practice (named Tier 1 in the Legal 500).  

As an Evening Trainee Case Handler, you will control and manage your workload effectively and efficiently using the relevant case management systems and other processes appropriately, ensuring the information is kept accurate and up-to-date. Furthermore, you’ll be accountable for your workload ensuring targets, KPIs and internal and client service level agreements are met.

Throughout the 6 month contract, you will have the opportunity to develop your knowledge of the litigation and debt recovery process that impact the team’s delivery of its service, so you are better equipped to identify any potential issues within cases and refer these on accordingly. This will involve attending regular training sessions and also both internal and external meetings to assist in implementing changes to any procedures. 

You will need the following skills and experience:-

• Strong telephony experience - applicants must have the ability to deal with difficult telephone conversations with any of the key stakeholders in the recoveries process confidently and calmly and refer if appropriate
• IT literate with experience of using Word, Excel and the internet
• 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

Desirable knowledge and competencies:

• Previous litigation experience
• Have worked within a law firm, financial services or another professional services organisation

You may also have experience in the following: Litigation Paralegal, Negotiation, Collections Advisor, Debt Recovery, Recoveries Services, Customer Service, Negotiator, and Conflict Resolution. 

Benefits package 

Shoosmiths has an outstanding benefits package; we believe that all staff should be rewarded for their commitment to the continued success of the firm. These can include:

• A pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5.5%
• Generous life assurance cover for peace of mind, up to 8 times salary
• Up to 23 paid working days holiday per annum with the option to buy up to 8 additional days. You can choose to 'flex' twice a year - January and July
• 'Happy Birthday!' - have a free day off to celebrate and a £50 voucher to spend! (We won't take it from your annual entitlement)
• Childcare vouchers which are not subject to tax or NI
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Staff introduction bonus scheme
• Corporate discounts on a wide variety of products and services
• Discounted conveyancing and legal advice, for instance for wills and family trusts

The application process

We will aim to respond to you within 3-4 working days following your application. If successful, you will be contacted by a member of our recruitment team for an informal telephone discussion. There will be one interview stage which will be held at our Northampton office. 

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, Personnel Vetting credit search (which will only highlight insolvency or County Court Judgments - should any adverse data show on the Personnel Vetting search then any offer of employment made will be withdrawn).Terrorism Check (against data supplied by the Bank of England) and a 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.