Job Description

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 \xe2\x80\x94 both ours and our clients\xe2\x80\x99\xe2\x80\x94 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 \xe2\x80\x98I-CUE\xe2\x80\x99). 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 department

The Cashiers team led by the Head Legal Cashier works closely with the fee-earning departments to ensure that all client and matter transactions are completed in a timely and efficient manner, ensuring compliance with the Solicitors Accounts rules. The team liaises with the Billing, Credit Control, Management Accounts and the Finance Management teams so it is crucial to ensure open lines of communications and workflows are maintained across the teams as appropriate, and that the Head Cashier is focussed on finding the optimal solution and working with colleagues across the business to ensure that processes are streamlined, efficient and working effectively. The team oversee the office and client bank accounts for the Firm and lead on ensuring compliance with the Solicitors accounts rules or equivalent regulations. The team also deal with processing of client disbursements for the Firm.

The Cashiers team are currently a team of seven, consisting of the Head Legal Cashier plus a mix of Senior Legal Cashiers, Legal Cashiers and Assistant Legal Cashiers. The Cashiers team are located in London and cover transactions for the main UK LLP and ROI practices, plus some smaller subsidiaries. The Hong Kong and Belfast offices have their own local finance teams, but there is close liaison between those local office teams and the central Cashier team.
Responsibilities

The Head Legal Cashier role focuses on management of the team and of the processes but the role will from time to time include hands-on operational tasks too, for cover at busy times.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Oversight of the Cashiers team, including staff recruitment, reviewing staffing levels, training and team development & appraisals for the team;
• Responsible for Cashiering processes and procedures, focussing on smooth and efficient running of existing processes and identifying & implementing process improvements where required;
• Liaison with auditors as part of the Solicitors Accounts Rules audit work across UK and ROI;
• Overall responsibility for processing client and/or office account payments, receipts, transfers, and direct debits;
• Oversight of the bank reconciliation process, reviewing the reconciliations prepared by the team and ensuring that reconciling items are cleared promptly;
• Responsibility for managing client balances and ensuring these are handled in accordance with the Solicitor\xe2\x80\x99s Accounts Rules;
• Responsibility for processing the firm\xe2\x80\x99s disbursements, including Counsel and Experts fees, Foreign payments and any UK disbursements/recharges;
• Managing the payment processes for foreign payments, both those made directly by the team through the banking software and those paid via Corpay;
• Managing the use of Precision pay (virtual credit cards used by certain areas of the business) and overseeing the posting and accounting reconciliations covering these transactions;
• Reviewing the Firm\xe2\x80\x99s client interest policy and ensuring that client interest is added in line with the Firm\xe2\x80\x99s policies;
• Treasury management as needed in order to ensure optimum returns on any client monies;
• Dealing with setup and closure of bank accounts and deposit accounts as needed;
• Involvement in managing the relationship with the Bank\xe2\x80\x99s operational teams, and key suppliers which fall into the Cashier area (including Corpay and Chrome River as noted above);
• Amendments to / closures of Clients and Matters on Elite 3e, in line with Law Society and anti-money laundering regulations;
• Involvement in Firmwide projects to review and improve processes across the Finance function. Current projects include rolling out Chrome River to the non-UK offices, and carrying out a review of the disbursements processes, working with Finance Systems team and Solutions team to map current processes and identify and implement improvements; and
• Delivery of training to staff around the Firm, to ensure awareness of the Firm\xe2\x80\x99s procedures and controls over cash and client monies.

Key requirements

The successful candidate will have extensive cashiering experience, ideally as a Head Cashier, or Senior Cashier, gained within a law firm or other professional services environment and must be able to demonstrate:

• An in-depth knowledge of the Solicitors\xe2\x80\x99 Accounts Rules to ensure compliance with the regulations;
• A track record of identifying and delivering process improvements;
• Experience of managing a team effectively;
• Logical and methodical approach with excellent numeracy skills and attention to detail;
• Clear communication skills, and an approachable demeanour;
• Excellent organisational skills and ability balance day to day and project tasks;
• Knowledge of Elite 3E desirable but must be familiar with either using this, or equivalent practice management systems;
• Proficiency in using Excel and knowledge and experience of windows-based packages such as Microsoft Office (Word, Outlook etc);
• Sound understanding of VAT recovery processes;
• Understanding of billing and/or credit control is desirable but not essential.

Key competencies

• Clear and concise written and oral communication.
• Proactive approach with a \xe2\x80\x98can-do\xe2\x80\x99 attitude.
• The ability to build strong working relationships with a range of people at all levels.
• Identifies and communicates opportunities to improve the way that work is done.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills with the ability to manage tasks efficiently.
• Works successfully as part of a team, sharing knowledge, collaborating with and supporting colleagues.
• Ability to liaise with members of the wider Finance department and Lewis Silkin colleagues to resolve queries and other matters that arise.
• Excellent customer service skills with a helpful and responsive approach.
• Ability to see the wider context in which a particular process sits.
• Flexible in approach and adaptable to change.
• Resilient and calm under pressure.
• Motivated, results and delivery focused with a commitment to quality of work.
• Takes ownership and actively looks for personal learning and development opportunities.
• Demonstrates sound judgement.
• A commitment to the highest level of integrity.
• Focuses on finding the right commercial solutions and problem solving.
• Ability to tackle a job keeping in mind the end-to-end process, rather than dealing with a piece of the process as an isolated task.
• Flexible nature and willingness to take on additional duties as the business evolves.
• Analytical with the ability to suggest enhancements or changes to current processes if needed.

Additional information

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.

Lewis Silkin