Client Account Operations Lead - CT/ET

DLA Piper is a bold, exceptional, collaborative, and supportive firm where our people are the backbone, heart, and soul. This role offers the opportunity to engage in meaningful work and grow your career while supporting the firm’s strategic initiatives.

About the role

The Client Accounts Operations Lead is an advanced-level Legal Biller with analytical and job-priority sequencing responsibilities. This position dynamically manages the firm’s top-tier billing portfolios on an as-needed basis, supporting multiple managers and billing teams. Responsibilities include analyzing and prioritizing tasks to maximize contribution to the billing organization, conducting process and gap analysis, and providing customized training and mentoring to staff on billing procedures.

The role serves as a subject-matter expert in billing, providing full-cycle billing support for complex domestic and international client accounts. It may include temporary managerial support during absences or periods of increased workload and involves representing the department in client meetings and cross-functional groups to drive billing practices and processes. This position is remote and may require work across various time zones with a dynamic schedule based on business needs.

Location

This hybrid role can be based in one of the following offices: Chicago, Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Northern Virginia, Philadelphia, Raleigh, Short Hills, Washington, DC, or Wilmington.

Responsibilities

• Provide temporary managerial support in the absence of designated regional managers.
• Serve as a functional supplemental senior-level billing resource during absences, unplanned vacancies, or increased workloads.
• Act as a subject-matter expert to provide legal billing surge support for multiple regional billing teams or managers.
• Handle short-to-mid-term assignments to support billing groups experiencing production surges or resource shortfalls, including splitting time across multiple managers and billing attorneys.
• Review data for accuracy prior to submission and gather/submit accrual information based on client requirements.
• Research and resolve electronic billing rejections and client billing data, providing detailed analysis to attorneys and support staff.
• Track and resolve tickets assigned by the Accounting Service Desk daily.
• Collaborate with Legal Support Services and Accounting teams to streamline billing and client account services.
• Analyze and prioritize responsibilities to maximize contribution to the billing organization, including process and gap analysis for training and mentoring.
• Maintain accurate client billing requirements, including guidelines from the client’s general counsel, and update them as necessary.
• Interact with stakeholders to understand business problems and define solution requirements.
• Analyze legal billing processes and systems, develop business cases, build metrics, and perform reporting. Document functional and system requirements and create process-flow diagrams.
• Apply best practices for communication and problem-solving, create standardized reports, analyze data, and document areas for improvement.
• Support projects, report progress, liaise with participants, and ensure task completion.
• Interface with IT and other departments to execute cross-functional project requirements, perform system testing, and validate requirements.
• For U.S. clients: Support the full billing cycle, including reviewing and editing proformas, seeking approvals for deferrals, write-offs, and time transfers. Field billing inquiries and create complex monthly reports.
• For global clients: Lead unified billing, review data for accuracy, manage account assignments, and perform full-cycle billing functions. Liaise with international attorneys and finance counterparts for accrual and forecasting information, troubleshoot issues, and generate LEDES files for electronic billing.
• Develop and deliver training programs to ensure consistent billing processes across the team.
• Finalize and submit invoices directly to clients or provide them to attorneys for transmission, including additional billing information as needed.
• Serve as a point of escalation and quality analyst, providing support, guidance, mentoring, and training to junior staff.

Skills

• Advanced experience as a senior-level Legal Biller.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for interacting with colleagues and stakeholders.
• Extensive billing experience in a major law firm or professional services organization, with expertise in domestic, global, and e-billing.
• Strong knowledge of the Aderant Legal Billing accounting system.
• Proficiency in e-billing applications such as e-Hub or Bill Blast.
• Team-oriented with the ability to collaborate effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong attention to detail and accuracy in proofreading.
• Ability to troubleshoot and resolve complex problems independently while taking direction well.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to identify efficiency improvements and coach others on industry and process optimization.
• Comfortable summarizing and communicating project scope and execution.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills, including Lookup and PivotTable functions.
• Highly organized, self-starting, and able to manage multiple projects and deadlines simultaneously.
• Ability to prioritize assignments and provide backup billing support to multiple managers for dynamically assigned billing attorneys.

Requirements

• High School Diploma or GED (required).
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Accounting, Finance, or a related field (preferred).
• Minimum of 5 years of senior-level legal billing experience managing high-volume billing portfolios in a fast-paced customer environment.

Essential Job Expectations

• Demonstrate excellence in serving clients and developing people, upholding firm values.
• Communicate effectively with clients, lawyers, business professionals, and external audiences.
• Produce high-quality work and respond to correspondence efficiently and professionally.
• Meet deadlines, manage competing priorities, and maintain high standards.
• Comply with firm policies and procedures.
• Maintain confidentiality as required in a law firm environment.

Physical Demands

This role involves primarily sedentary work, requiring occasional exertion of up to 10 pounds of force. It includes extended periods of sitting, with occasional walking and standing, and may involve domestic or international travel.

Benefits

The firm’s expected hiring range for this position is $89,991 - $137,126 per year, depending on the candidate’s geographic market location and experience.