A legal billing clerk is responsible for processing a high volume of legal invoices, and administrative and clerical functions.
In general, legal billing clerks prepare, review and distribute pre-bills and also prepare final bills as per clients’ specifications.
A high school diploma is usually sufficient to work as a legal billing clerk, but an associate’s degree is considered a plus.
Some experience with a law firm, and operating an electronic billing system is of course an added plus.
It is important for legal billing clerks to maintain strict confidentiality of all clients and firm and billing matters.
In addition to this, they must possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills as they need to keep in constant contact with clients and other personnel within the company.
The ability to resolve issues effectively, follow up on delinquent accounts, and handle requests that come through regarding corrections or appeals is also quite important.
On any given day at work, a legal billing clerk will be required to draft legal bills, budgets, and assessments for the attorney’s review, and complete billing functions such as submitting e-bills through client platforms.
If you are familiar with operating billing programs such as Timeslip, Tymetrics, and Bottomline, you may be just the person that an employer is looking for to hire as a legal billing clerk.
And here is what you will be doing:
Legal Billing Clerk Duties and Responsibilities
• Look through clients’ accounts to determine what is owed to the attorney and compile and bill attorney hours on a monthly basis.
• Review pre-bills in accordance with attorneys’ requests and ensure that all information in them is correct.
• Take orders from attorneys to apply retainer funds and process write-offs following firm policies.
• Execute complex bills in a timely manner by ensuring that electronic bills are properly prepared and that split-party billing is managed according to protocol.
• Research and respond to inquiries regarding billing discrepancies and problems, ensuring that they are resolved immediately.
• Create and maintain billing schedules and ensure that all bills are prepared and sent to the client according to the schedule.
• Take prints of final bills, place them in envelopes and ensure that they are sent out in a timely manner.
• Follow up on delinquent clients by calling them over the telephone and sending out email reminders.
• Ensure that detailed reports of all billed charges are created and maintained in each client’s file.
• Perform collection activities (especially in the event of non-payments) and assist in resolving billing disputes between clients and staff members.