Litigation Advisor

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Litigation Adviser

We’re looking for a brilliant Litigation Adviser to join our team of colleagues in British Gas Business, that together are setting the standard in energy supply.

In the complicated world of energy, we strive to make energy simple, creating a straightforward and hassle-free experience for our customers.

Our philosophy is success comes when we’re in it together, trusting each other and having fun along the way. And because we’ve got big plans to help our homes and businesses get closer to net zero, we can’t stand still. We need to be always learning, ready to grow and move forward.

This is an exciting opportunity to work within the British Gas Business Energy Debt Litigation team. The successful applicant will manage a portfolio of business customers to recover debt via pre-legal and litigation activities. These activities range from direct account holder engagement to resolve and rehabilitate accounts, all the way through instruction and support of external solicitors in litigated cases and attendance at trial.

You will work closely with solicitors to help prepare cases, gather and interrogate account information and give instructions on legal action, developing a case strategy as you do so. You will be expected to represent the business in court as a witness and attend mediation and settlement meetings with account holders and progress each case in your portfolio to a conclusion. Understanding of the cost of proceedings and likelihood of recovery is essential, as are good networking and problem-solving skills to resolve queries and disputes from account holders.

Accountabilities

• Manage a portfolio of live and final debt accounts throughout the litigation process to ensure that they are being progressed in a timely and cost-efficient manner and to maximise the recovery of bad debt.
• Where appropriate engage with account holders directly prior to instruction of solicitors to resolve outstanding debt without the need for escalation.
• Provide instructions to solicitors on behalf of the business on initiating legal and insolvency proceedings against account holders.
• Liaise with external solicitors, gathering information to support claims and being an essential point of contact.
• Manage debt cases through legal proceedings, as well as through statutory demands, winding up petitions and bankruptcy actions.
• Support the preparation, review and execution of witness statements as drafted by solicitors as part of litigation proceedings.
• Attend court as a witness to give evidence on behalf of the business at interim hearings and trials. This will involve travelling to the defendant’s home court and could necessitate overnight stays.
• Attend mediations and round table discussions with account holders and solicitors to resolve matters without the progression of legal action. This will involve travelling to neutral venues and potential overnight stays.
• Investigate and resolve customer and solicitor queries raised in the course of pre-legal/legal action in order to promptly progress cases. This includes investigation of tenancy of sites, contracts, meter related issues, account billing, meter reads, payment allocation, etc.
• Network within the business to get account issues resolved promptly and to provide solicitors with explanations of business and industry processes.
• Understand the cost implication of court proceedings to assess the benefit of taking legal action and likelihood of recovery.

The Person

• Positive and driven approach to their day to day activities.
• Self-motivated with the ability to set and devise suitable strategies to resolve each case.
• A role model that leads by example and demonstrates an energetic approach that inspires others and continually seeks self-development.
• Excellent verbal and written communicator as these are key skills when representing the business in court or engaging with stakeholders.
• Proven ability of building and maintaining effective relationships with a range of stakeholders.
• A flexible approach with an ability to effectively manage and prioritise own workload and time effectively.
• Excellent analytical skills. Must be able to demonstrate attention to detail skills as the accuracy and the quality of documentation produced and information provided is essential.

Background/Education

• Experience of either working in Legal, complex debt or complaint analysis would be beneficial though is not essential.
• To have an understanding of legal proceedings including Statutory Demands and Winding Up Petitions and Part 7 claims and when these should be used.
• Proven ability to make commercial decisions to ensure we add value and obtain successful outcomes.

Essential Skills

Commercial Know-How:

• Managing for value.
• Understand the external market place.
• Understanding Debt Operations priorities.
• Understanding our Customers.
• Decision making.

Building Great Relationships:

• Impact and influencing skills.
• Confidence and creditability.
• Effective networking.
• Partnering.

Making Change Happen:

• Stakeholder management.
• Effective decision making.
• Communication.

At Centrica we embrace diversity and actively seek to attract individuals with unique backgrounds and perspectives. To build a more sustainable future, we need the best team – a team with a diverse mix of people and skills, where everyone feels welcome and able to succeed. We are dedicated in helping to close the diversity gap and would love to see more females, people of colour and LGBTQ+ employees, as well as those from a variety of cultures and ethnicity to veterans and the differently abled. Supporting diversity and inclusion is a big part of who we are, we are not looking for people to fit into our culture but to add to it!

PLEASE APPLY ONLINE by hitting the 'Apply' button.

Applications will ONLY be accepted via the ‘Apply’ button.

This role is being handled by the Centrica recruitment team and NO agency contact is required.