South West London Law Centres (Swllc)

SOUTH WEST LONDON LAW CENTRES (SWLLC)

Legal Action for Local Communities

JOB DESCRIPTION

POST:In-house Costs Lawyer / Billing and Costing Co-ordinator

Salary:£24,633 to £32,000 inclusive of London weighting depending on experience

Reports to:CEO (SWLLC)

Line Manages:None

Functional Links:Director Lambeth, Team Leaders, Caseworkers and Senior Management Team in both Law Centres

Term:One year fixed term (with the hopethat the post becomesself funding and permanent)

Hours:35 hours per week – generally between 9.30am to 5.30pm

Employment StatusPermanent employed although we would consider self-employed basis

Based at:Croydon with travel around the other branch offices of South West London Law Centres as well as Lambeth Law Centre based in Oval. As the post develops it is anticipated that there will be regular travel to other Law Centres and NFP agencies in London

Context of the Post

Our Law Centres do incredible work for the most vulnerable in society. We operate however in a harsh, challenging and unforgiving funding environment. We need to improve ourbilling and cashflow. Solicitors and caseworkers in the NFP Sector are already hard pressed to keep on top of the number of clients who desperately need their help. Their focus is, understandably, on helping clients and the nature and urgency of client needs often means that tasks perceived as administrative or supplementary to the casework often get left. This is particularly true of costs and billing which does not form part of the core training for lawyers and caseworkers.

We are looking for a costs lawyer / billing and costing co-ordinatorto centralise the billing and costing functions in the Law Centresinvolved in thisthe project with a view to maximizing income and improving cashflow. This is a pilot project. If we can prove that this system works, we then want to expand the service into other Law Centres and grow the costs / billing team

The initial phase of the project will involvesetting up systems; progressing the backlog of billing across the participant organisations and, once under control, looking at developing further management information, training and resources with the long term aim to expand the project further and increase the team

Duties and Responsibilities

Billing Support

To work with the CEO to help devise a system of administrative support to progress billing within each of the branch offices
To work towards merging billing systems across the Law Centresin thisproject
To define and harmonise how fee earners are to report matters including on CCMS
To maintain billing records tracking the status offiles that are in the billing process and to provide regular updates to the fee earners, team leaders and CEO
To assist caseworkers with checking and getting files ready for billing and to provide guidance and support when there are unsure of what to

Billing

Check all EC before submissions and liaise with the Finance Manager on any differential between the case management system and the bill to be reported
Check all immigration matters and liaise with the Finance Manager on how these are to be reported (once backlog cleared)
Prepare and check simple bills on CCMS
To commission and Instruct the costs drafts men with more complex bills and track them (maintaining excellent working relationships with external costs draftsmen)
Check bills back from the costs draftsmen and get sign off from the relevant fee earner.
Deal with any points in dispute in conjunction with the relevant fee earner.
Submit relevant bills for assessment by the court and track the bills through the assessment process
Submit final bills to the LAA
Keep track of settled bills and private fee paying work
Peruse debt recover work or manage any outsourced debt recovery work.
Submit payments on account for disbursements and profit costs (once backlog cleared)
Liaise with the Finance Manager over the submission of staged disbursement claims in immigration matters (once backlog cleared)

Monitoring, reporting,

Provide the CEO and team leaders with monthly billing and time reporting performance data
Provide the CEO and team leaders at least quarterly interrogated work in progress spreadsheets and look for inactive matters.
Monitor and keep track of all LAA rejects and claims for uplifts – monitor the KPI data from the LAA
In appropriate cases liaise with the relevant caseworker to draft and submit appeals against LAA rejects and to prepare matters to resubmit
Deliver costs updates and training to fee earners on changes and matters that come to light within the monitoring process. Promote and disseminate areas of good practice to improve billing performance. Liaise with the cost draftsmen to provide further training (once backlog cleared)

Documentation

Draft and maintain a Billing and Costing guide that can be used to cover common issues and processes within the Law Centre and eventually other NFP agencies (once backlog cleared)

Outreach

Work with the CEO to expand and develop the Billing and Costing function to other Law Centres and other NFP agencies
Provide similar targeted services to other Law Centre and other NFP agencies
Manager further support staff in delivering this service

Personal and professional development

To collate and exchange examples of good practice to share across the partners to the propject to promote consistently high standards.
To attend courses on billing and costing, specialist skills and the use of information technology
To take part in monthly review meetings with the partners of the project
To actively participate in supervision and appraisal and team activities to promote high standards and continuous development.
Liaise and help support any reference group that is set up to support this project

Equal opportunities

To have regard always in the planning and execution of duties to the Law Centre’s equal opportunities policy.

Other

To attend SWLLC/Lambeth staff meetings as required.
To undertake other duties which are generally compatible with the functions of the post.
To comply with SWLLC policies and procedures, particularly those relating to health and safety, confidentiality and security, as set out in the Office Manual as well the policies of other partner organisations.

SOUTH WEST LONDON LAW CENTRES (SWLLC)

Legal Action for Local Communities

PERSON SPECIFICATION

POST:In-house Costs Lawyer / Billing and Costing Co-ordinator

Salary:£24,633 to £32,000 inclusive of London weighting depending on experience

Reports to:CEO (SWLLC)

Line Manages:None

Functional Links:CEO Lambeth, Team Leaders, Caseworkers and Senior Management Team in both Law Centres

Term:One year fixed term with idea that the post becomes permanent

Hours:35 hours per week – generally between 9.30am to 5.30pm

Employment StatusPermanent employed although we would consider self-employed basis

Essential to the role

GCSE or equivalent at Grade C or above in English and Mathematics.
High degree of accuracy and checking in any work that is carried out.
Good IT skills and, in particular, confident with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel and Access) and databases including case management systems
Excellent organisational skills, including maintaining paper and electronic filing systems.
Ability to communicate clearly in writing, in person and on the telephone.
Ability to work well as part of a team and form effective working relationships with others.
Ability to hold your own with other professionals
Ability to work well under pressure and prioritise effectively when there are competing demands on time.
Ability to work on your own initiative.
Ability to maintain confidentiality.
Willingness to travel to the different locations of the project and work with the different partners
Supportive of the objectives of SWLLC, including a commitment to equal opportunities

Highly Desirable for the role

Experience of working within a legal aid practice;
Understanding of court procedures and costs rules;
Understanding of the legal aid costs rules and billing procedures;
Experience of drafting and coordinating legal costs claims and, in particular, legal aid bills;
Knowledge of the legal aid online and CCMS systems;
Experience of supervising volunteers in basic office procedures