Junior Credit Controller

Lewis Silkin works with leading businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets - their ideas, their people, their brand and their future. We call it: Ideas. People. Possibilities.

With offices in London, Oxford, Manchester, Leeds, Cardiff, Belfast, Dublin and Hong Kong, we are recognised by clients and industry alike as being distinct for our unique culture, market-leading practice areas, sector focused approach and for providing solutions to complex, multijurisdictional business challenges, with a pragmatic and human touch. We have two things at our core: people — both ours and our clients’— and a focus on creative, tech and innovative businesses.

Our culture is encapsulated by an ethos of bravery and kindness, guided by our values of Integrity, Clarity, Unity and Excellence (our ‘I-CUE’). We aim to provide a supportive environment for our people, clients and wider community and embrace diversity & inclusion, ensuring people are able to bring their full selves to work.

The Finance Operations Team works closely with the fee-earning departments to ensure debts are collected and funds are allocated in a timely manner. The team works closely with all other finance teams, including Cashiers, Billing and E-billing.

Reporting to the Credit Control Manager, the Junior Credit Controller will be responsible for the debts of a portfolio of Partners. They will be required to hold debtor meetings with Partners, chase all debts in their portfolio and to provide updates to the CCM and the WCM. The individual will work closely with the CCM on all aspects of their role.

Key responsibilities include overseeing and tracking progress on debt collection across their allocated Partners and will work in collaboration with the rest of the Credit Control team to ensure cash receipts are maximised, alerting the CCM to potential problem debtors, holding regular meetings with those Partners who have significant levels of debt > 90 days. In addition, this role will be required to deal with queries from fee earners and clients referred by the Credit Control Assistants.

The Junior Credit Controller will have specific responsibility for:

• Meeting and liaising with Partners on a timely basis to agree strategy to maximise debt collection and escalating to CCM/WCM where required;
• Reporting on progress of collection of >£100k debts to CCM for the Finance Committee on a monthly basis;
• Proactive chasing of slow paying external clients;
• Proactive contact with clients by telephone, email and via automated letters and statements from software regarding all credit control issues;
• Keeping full account of every action taken to collect debts on the firms' practice management system;
• Managing the credit control inbox, to include categorising new emails received to the correct credit controller when necessary, responding to all emails within your own category promptly;
• Attending the weekly credit control meeting to provide updates on any debts as and when required;
• Referring complex credit control related queries from internal and external clients to the CCM in a timely manner in accordance with the escalation process;
• Adhere to the guidelines on specific types of debt;
• Assist with the completion of a monthly Client Exposure Report;
• Passing bad debt to external debt recovery agency.

Experience and Skills Required

Successful candidates should have a minimum of one to two years’ credit control experience.

The Junior Credit Controller will be able to demonstrate:

• Excellent organisational skills to ensure deadlines are met;
• Strong communication skills, with an ability to communicate and build relationships at all levels from senior partners to junior staff;
• Ability to work as part of a team;
• Strong technical knowledge of credit control applications;
• Proactive approach and readiness to learn new skills;
• Ability to switch from client facing to processing activities as workload requires;
• Ability to manage own workload and prioritise accordingly.

At Lewis Silkin our ethos is simple. We strive to do the best for our clients, our people and the communities in which we operate. We recognise that an inclusive workplace allows for all kinds of ideas and thoughts, a variety of points of view that can trigger discussions or deliver innovative results, and a wide range of versatile skills and expertise. We are proud of the diversity within Lewis Silkin and of our culture that allows people to be themselves at work, ensuring we provide the best possible service to our clients. We are committed to finding the right person for this role and are open to discussing flexible working patterns and office location.