Senior Client Account Specialist

About the role

Cleary Gottlieb is a pioneer in globalizing the legal profession. We have 14 offices in major financial centers around the world, but we operate as a single, integrated global partnership and not as a U.S. firm with a network of overseas locations. The firm employs approximately 1,100 lawyers from more than 50 countries. Since 1946 our lawyers and staff have worked across practices, industries, jurisdictions, and continents to provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges, whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility, commercial acumen, and a human touch.

Responsibilities

• Drive the billing and collection process to ensure accurate and timely invoicing and payment of clients for assigned partners, practice groups, and/or offices.
• Monitor assigned partner’s monthly aging AR reports and take appropriate action to ensure each invoice is paid on time and in full; direct teams to follow-up on underpayments and help with resolution, as needed.
• Update key finance reports (e.g., projection amounts, clear and concise billing or AR comments) daily, to ensure timely and quality reporting for Senior Management.
• Collaborate with internal clients and other finance teams, such as Pricing Operations and ebilling, to ensure accurate client invoices, submission requirements, and reporting.
• Coordinate and lead UBT/AR meetings with your assigned partners regularly (e.g., at least once a month).
• Monitor bill processing status and perform necessary follow up.
• Ensure successful submission of E-Billing thru Billblast or directly through the clients 3rd party E-Billing vendor.
• Collaborate with the Client Account and Revenue Operations teams to develop efficiencies in the billing process.
• Validate and test functionality and reports during billing system and report upgrades.
• Support the Client Account Managers and Advisors, as needed, with all aspects of day to day operations of the client accounting team in accordance with Firm Policies and procedures.
• Take part in ad hoc client analysis projects as requested and handle a portfolio of complex matters; special projects, as assigned.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, or related fields.
• 4-5 years of relevant billing and client relationship experience at a professional service firm or law firm is required.
• Proficiency with Excel and Word.
• Excellent writing, organizational, interpersonal and communication skills.
• Flexibility to work evenings and weekends to meet deadlines.
• Strong listening skills and ability to communicate complex information simply and clearly.
• Detail-oriented with strong knowledge of billing and collections processes, strong technical billing and client service skills, ability to investigate issues and errors.
• Able to work effectively in a collaborative, consensus-driven, partnership environment with highly skilled professionals.
• Demonstrates strong customer service for both internal and external clients.
• Absolutely possess professional maturity to know when to escalate issues that have a financial impact on the firm.
• Has the ability to anticipate clients’ needs and future requests based on trends.
• Proactively seeks ways to make improvements.
• Exhibits leadership characteristics and displays sound work ethic.
• Acts as a role model and subject matter expert to the junior staff.

Pay

The estimated base salary range for this position is $105,000 to $115,000 at the time of posting. The actual salary offered will depend on a variety of job-related factors, including skills, education, training, credentials, experience, scope and complexity of role responsibilities, geographic location, and performance.

Schedule

This role is non-exempt meaning it is overtime pay eligible.

Benefits

We are an equal opportunity employer and prohibit discrimination based on any category protected by law. Cleary provides reasonable accommodations to enable otherwise qualified employees to perform the essential functions of their position, provided the accommodation does not pose an undue hardship to the Firm. More information can be found here: Benefits