Credit Control Team Leader

It is the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams; together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves from how you dress to how, when and where you work – we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

To provide truly outstanding client service we work as one team.  Our Business Operations Group is made up of business professionals who work with our legal professionals to provide market leading expertise to our clients.  The Groups include; Finance, Operations, HR, Clients & Markets, IT, Risk and the Executive Leadership team.

Our Finance team is made up of over 40 people who work from a variety of our office locations. The work is split into four core areas; Financial Accounting, Financial Operations, Business Partnering and Partner Services.

The team work closely with our other business operations teams to provide a first class service. They are responsible for the sound financial management of the firm, including cash flow, budgeting, internal and external reporting and audit. They have responsibilities for the safe-keeping and operating of our clients’ funds held on account and also deal with payroll, credit control, work-in progress, partner finances and tax returns. The team also provide bespoke finance business partnering support to all other areas of the business.

We are looking for a Credit Control Team Leader to join our Finance team, part of the firm’s Business Operations group. 

Your key duties will be:

• Responsibility for leading a team of 6 Credit Controllers and leading by example, demonstrating the values and behaviours the firm promotes
• Developing the skills of the Credit Controllers including coaching, supporting and motivating to deliver optimum performance
• Performing regular ledger reviews with the team
• Attending regular debt reviews with fee earners
• Acting as the Subject Matter Expert for our new PMS system – Aderant Expert
• Providing technical input, support and expertise into investigation, negotiation and settlement of debts
• Being an advocate of the CC Policies in all instances
• Establishing sound accounting methods and principles, ensuring they are followed consistently by the team
• Proactively monitoring volumes of workloads across the team, understand priorities and maximising resource utilisation
• Driving continuous improvement activity to streamline current processes and document in line with Managers requirements
• Ensuring high level of accuracy in all Client master data
• Collaborating with the Debt Recovery and Risk teams to review outstanding debt on a monthly basis
• Ensuring the reporting and communication of the Credit Teams KPI’s occurs in a timely manner
• Reviewing the instalments schedule and liaising with fee earners to revise where possible
• General housekeeping of the debtors ledger
• Supporting the Credit Manager with any audit requirements including the collation of data or reporting
• Deputising for the Credit Manager in their absence
• Carrying out other ad hoc duties, as required by Credit Manager

Skills and experience you will have:

• At least 3 years’ previous experience in a similar role, preferably within the legal sector but professional services will also be considered
• Previous experience of leading a team successfully
• Knowledge of Axxia / Aderant systems would be desirable
• Studying towards or have attained CICM accreditation is desirable
• Strong Excel skills with the ability to manipulate data and present it well; experience of pivot tables and vlookups is an advantage
• Proven track record of resolving queries and meeting targets
• Demonstrable ability to work efficiently and effectively under pressure of deadlines, including experience in prioritising competing workloads and managing external parties’ expectations

Key competencies you will need:

• To be analytical and highly organised
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Ability to adapt in a changing and progressive environment
• Solid negotiation skills
• Excellent attention to detail and high degree of accuracy is imperative
• The ability to build strong relationships at all levels and influence internal and external stakeholders
• Strong commercial focus and good business acumen
• Solutions focused

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role will be a mixture of home based and working from our Birmingham Office.

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

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. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.