Billing & Revenue Specialist at Kilburn & Strode (2024-09 – Present)
Moving to an IP law firm who focus on Patent and Trademark work opened my eyes to a whole new side of the Law industry. Kilburn & Strode use a billing system called Equinox, it has been good to learn a new system although I am aware this is not widely used within the legal industry. I believe my role and profile has now moved from strictly e-billing to a much more well rounded billing/revenue/collections individual who can provide an array of skills and knowledge.
- My daily duties now consist of a vast range of tasks. This can stretch from keeping on top of simple queries in our billing inbox (e.g. credit and reissues, adding costs, amending billing address information, adhering to monthly/year-end deadlines for different clients).
- I also run a range of different reports, this could be WIP figures for certain partners on a monthly basis or a snapshot figure of how much we have billed a client over a certain period of time. Also accurual report figures for a handful of clients to adhere to monthly accrual deadlines.
- Taking over the billing side of things, as well as continuing to keep on top of the e-billing portion of the company, whilst contributing to the firm having three successive record revenue years in a row shows how well I can juggle key aspects of work and perform at a high level.
- Supervising a junior biller and having catch-up meetings whenever required has really improved my communication and organisational skills. Being an open and trusting member of staff to those at a junior level is key to building team morale and helps to align our goals along the same path in order to work together to hit targets.
- I have also spent lots of time mentoring and teaching our paralegals who sit in finance/billing during their rotations. Over the last 6 months I have had a paralegal join the billing team two days a week. They report into me which has helped hone my people and management skills and also how I efficiently manage mine and their workload so we can both perform to our highest levels on a consistent basis.
- We do a lot of cross-currency billing at K&S (GBP, USD, EUR) so it is always essential, especially when billing new clients to make sure currencies are set up correctly and the client has our correct banking information.
- Delving more into the analytical aspect of the firm's financial performance, running weekly reports which contain revenue/WIP/cash analysis as well as a breakdown of all debt within the firm really added to my skillset. This allowed me to take on more responsibility and take this into partner meetings and drive standards and better practices within the firm.
- I currently have between 8-10 partner meetings a month. These meetings are typically focused on driving down debt that is over 90 days old and tackling any issues that may arise on the collections side. For example, if a client has a large outstanding debt we have been chasing for a long time but to no avail, myself and the partner will put together a plan. This could be involving higher senior figures at the client, making phone calls to put together a payment plan and a variety of other different tactics.
- Leading weekly debt report meetings to the finance team and reporting this to Finance Director/Head of Commercial finance. This has given me a much greater responsibility and vision of the firm's figures and has allowed me to have a greater understanding of the metrics needed to measure success and how to combat issues and behaviours that are not financially healthy.
- Putting together monthly WIP reports for our fee earners with the highest aged WIP to make sure the firm's figures remain healthy and we are billing as much as we can to our clients. Another new skillset which has given me an increased sense of purpose and confidence.
- Taking over our Tech & Eng practice group as billing/e-billing/revenue lead has provided me with a clear and strict responsibility. Being accountable for the debt level of a whole practice group has really laser focused my day to day work and given me a clear goal to aim towards, to be the most efficient and financially productive group in the firm.
- Bringing the e-billing debt of the firm down from 90 day debt percentage of 29% in October 2024 to 8% in October 2025 is some of my proudest work and shows how target driven and successful my work is.
- I believe my hands on and personable approach to all stakeholders has been beneficial in achieving these results. I like to work with different people and assess how they like to receive and take in their information from a financial perspective. When I joined Kilburn & Strode, I took it upon myself to work on some of our historically difficult clients and cleaned up some internal processes in order to make sure things ran smoothly going forward from billing to collections.
- I have gained valuable experience over the years working closely with Credit Control/Collections, cashiers, AP teams and I now feel my skillset is extremely well rounded and ready to take on a more senior role which encapsulates the workings of the wider finance function and to show these skills and qualities I have obtained to a wider audience.
E-Billing Coordinator at White & Case LLP (2023-08 – 2024-08)
- Further exposure to setting up/onboarding new clients and the correct processes.
- White & Case also use Elite 3E so I have gained a lot of experience with this system.
- Looked after various different blue chip international clients such as Citibank & Google.
- Worked closely with our European & Asian offices to train them on the basics of e-billing in order to streamline the process of uploading invoices.
- Reported into various US Partners and e-Billing Manager in New York, would work longer hours to make sure as much as possible was in order before our US team started their working day.
- Led training sessions for stakeholders across different countries for use of the e-billing hub and various other e-billing platforms.
- The London office was the first point of contact for our European and Asian offices for any billing/e-billing queries so being that trusted source meant I had to manage my time and tasks a lot better in order to keep up with whatever the other teams may throw at us.
E-Billing Assistant at Hogan Lovells (2017-11 – 2023-08)
Moved into a role as an E-Billing Assistant for one of the world's leading law firms in an exceptionally competitive industry. When I moved to Hogan Lovells, an upgrade on their billing system was just put in place. This was an Elite 3E upgrade which gave me further exposure to this system.
- Was given more responsibility on purely the e-billing side and learnt how best to structure my day in order to meet the daily targets and goals that were set.
- Working in a team of 10 e-billers, 6 in London and 4 in Johannesburg, improved my communication skills and increased the value of having a supportive and helpful team around me.
- This role entailed working with colleagues from all over the world in different offices through different time zones. Time-management was crucial in these cases especially when working to deadlines and being able to contact people in sufficient time to make sure everything went smoothly.
- Extremely comfortable and experienced on up to 15-20 e-billing platforms such as Legal Tracker, Collaborati, Tymetrix 360 and Collaboration Passport.
- Used a variety of LEDES file formats (98B, 98BI & XML).
- Gained further experience of the technical side of e-billing and delving deeper into each client's specific requirements which allowed me to identify errors quicker. For example, knowing what task codes to use, being aware if a client does not allow certain timekeeper titles to bill on their invoices and recognising incorrect tax codes/client VAT numbers plus many more.
- Confident and approachable when liaising with client contacts in order to work through rejections, timekeeper rate requests, accrual inputs etc.
- Working at such a huge company with a reach in so many different corners of the world meant there was a lot of foreign currency billing. This ranged from USD, AUD & CNY. This brought about a lot of complex issues when billing, using the correct rates and making sure we were being paid in the correct currency. This made my attention to detail even greater.
- Became more involved with new client setups and what the processes were to ensure these were done correctly and efficiently. Worked with PAs, engagement letter/contract review teams and Partners at the same time to reach a common goal following the setup process.
- Experience liaising with multiple client's legal operations teams in order to work around various issues and errors.
Billing / E-Billing Administrator at Fieldfisher LLP (2015-11 – 2017-11)
Worked as a Billing/E-Billing Administrator in busy and large accounts department for a thriving law firm in the heart of London. Used the older version of Elite 3E at Fieldfisher.
