Head of Legal

A financial-services company based in Northamptonshire is looking to recruit a **Head of Legal** to join their team.

Location: Northampton

**Salary**: £75,000 per annum + Bonus up to 30%

Contract: Permanent

**Head of Legal** - The Role:
Within the position, the Head of Legal will proactively monitor outstanding balances, recommending and executing appropriate action to swiftly resolve any disputes whilst collaborating with all appropriate departments and external partners where necessary,including the instruction of external legal advisors and counsel where required. Further to the Recoveries focus, the Head of Legal will also review and recommend contractual amendments if required, alongside supporting ad-hoc and project workloads from alegal perspective, where needed, as the business continues to grow and expand at pace.

In addition to this, the Head of Legal will also manage the Collections function, including the End of Term department, on a day-to-day basis alongside strategically reviewing debt and arrear-patterns to identify trends, reporting salient issues to the Board.

**Head of Legal** - Key Responsibilities:

- Develop, implement and execute effective strategies for recovering debts and arrears
- Proactively monitor defaults and swiftly seek to resolve outstanding balances due
- Chair the Impairments Committee
- Feed/report key arrears trends/data into the Credit Department and Sales Team as necessary
- Manage and monitor the Collections department workload and output to deliver high staff performance and productivity, ensuring compliance with FCA, FLA, and NACFB applicable rules and regulations (training to be provided)
- Draft and produce all appropriate correspondence and liaise with the Finance Team to ensure late payment fees are accrued, invoiced and paid
- Actively manage the End of Term Department to minimize delay between purchase of Passing Title and the onward sale to customers
- Working closely with the Directors, review repossessions and legal options where defaults are ongoing, and be responsible for managing any legal options to recover arrears/assets, ensuring correct collection and disposal of assets where required
- Monitor and analyse performance metrics to continuously improve the collections and debt recovery process
- Build and maintain strong relationships with external legal firms, debt collection agencies and customers to ensure successful litigation outcomes
- Review unpaid direct debit reports daily and inform the Accounts and Underwriting team of any early concerns
- Conduct analysis to identify any patterns to defaults/arrears including customer sector, type, and size
- Prepare reports and present findings to the Board

**Head of Legal** - You:

- Previous experience in a Head of Recoveries/Head of Legal role (ideally with experience in unsecured lending) with a proven track record in managing a litigation process, recommending appropriate actions and legal cost reviews
- Qualified lawyer with experience in managing either in-house or private practice with a focus on litigation (preference for banking and finance insolvency and litigation)
- Strong experience analysing data and setting Recoveries strategy
- Strong practical and commercial skills, enabling a pragmatic assessment of case management
- Excellent ability to manage and handle contentious issues through to desired outcome
- Strong Microsoft Office skills with experience of using databases and CRMs

**Personal Attributes**:

- Excellent written and oral communications skills
- Ability to remain calm under pressure and meet deadlines
- Strong organisational skills with a high attention to detail
- Ability to prioritise and handle multiple tasks at any given time in a fast-paced environment
- Pro-active and enthusiastic with a can do attitude
- Strong commercial acumen
- Ability to work on own initiative as well as being a team player

To submit your CV for this exciting **Head of Legal** opportunity, please click 'Apply’ now