Consultant, LBA QA

Consultant Legal Invoice Review QA

The Consultant Legal Invoice Review QA, for Wolters Kluwer will be responsible for performing the quality assurance review for the Legal Bill Analysis Center of Excellence (LBACOE). The Legal Bill Analysis ("LBA") process involves the prompt, accurate and efficient auditing of electronically submitted legal fee and expense invoices submitted by law firms and vendors of our clients.

Essential Responsibilities:

• Conduct review of LBACOE Legal Invoice Analysts' line-item adjustments and non-adjusted invoice lines, applying specialized legal subject matter expert knowledge to context of legal invoice line items for quality assurance.
• Use sound individual discretion and with minimal supervision, conduct gap filling analysis to decode the legal "story" of an invoice by utilizing required law school education, law firm experience, and/or related specialized legal expertise.
• Verify the compliance of adjusted and non-adjusted line items to legal billing guidelines by law firms and vendors submitting invoices.
• Verify the accuracy of the UTBMS task codes (Fee, Activity and Expense codes) applied to invoice line items.
• Independently make further adjustments to invoice line items as necessary based on an assessment of the legal context of the invoice while utilizing specialized legal subject matter expert knowledge to extract core critical legal terminology and concepts. Document reasons for any additional adjustments made to invoice line items, identifying the billing guideline violated and the rationale for the amount adjusted.
• Promptly and professionally resolve law firm appeals.
• Receive and organize law firm requests for reconsideration from Operations Support Specialists or management and/or work the intake queue for requests for reconsideration.
• Address law firm requests for reconsideration of adjusted amounts while utilizing careful judgment, legal knowledge and utmost professionalism while upholding integrity of the legal billing process.
• Work with law firms in a professional manner via legal expert-to-expert written communications to carefully resolve disputed invoice line items using sound independent discretion and legal knowledge base.
• Efficiently and accurately review appealed legal invoice entries.
• Demonstrate superior ability to review, analyze and evaluate legal fees and costs/expenses in appealed invoice entries and to exercise discretion and sound independent judgment when making audit and adjustment decisions in a law firm appeals context.
• At the direction of management, handle escalated law firm appeals that have not been successfully resolved by QA Analyst I peers ("appeals mediation").
• At the direction of management, organize and participate in a resolution conference to be held with the law firm and client representative, when direct appeals mediation with the law firm does not successfully resolve the dispute.

Additional Responsibilities and Skills:

• Conduct periodic audit and data analysis to support management in collecting and verifying performance metrics for internal use and use with clients and law firms.
• Communicate and calibrate with audit team and appeals team members as part of critical legal expert QA Analyst "task force" that resolves ambiguities or "close judgment calls" in interpretation of client guidelines when applied to complex legal invoicing scenarios.
• Using sound discretion and legal expertise, analyze and condense legal service agreements to produce effective operational tools, meeting and in some cases exceeding customer expectations.
• Liaise with and provide periodic feedback to CIOX Artificial Intelligence Decision Science team on functionality and improvement of machine learning end-user experience and accuracy.
• Strong understanding of legal terminology and claims legal situations, including multijurisdictional exposure.
• Self-motivated with an ability to work independently and with very limited supervision after training.
• Ability to monitor the workflow and performance of partnered legal invoice analysts and identify/escalate any concerns to management.
• Excellent computer skills with the ability to learn the electronic legal bill submission and auditing software.
• Sound command of the English language-- grammar, syntax and style -- including an understanding of the conventions of punctuation and capitalization. Excellent spelling and proofreading skills.
• Effective communication and organization skills.
• Familiarity with common business math and possess appropriate business telephone skills.
• Ability to carry out detailed written or verbal instructions; ability to respond to requests effectively and efficiently.

Job Qualifications:

Education and Licensure:

Minimum: Bachelor's Degree required. Juris Doctor degree from an ABA-accredited law school required.

Experience, Knowledge and Tools:

• Required Experience: At least 5 years of the following relevant experience:
• Prior experience in a legal services or legal invoice auditing environment.
• Prior experience with direct communication with law firms in a legal billing context.
• Experience with handling conflict with law firms, in writing and telephonically.
• Highly developed communication skills, including both excellent written and verbal skills.
• Firm grasp of the Federal and/or State Rules of Civil Procedure.
• Insurance defense and civil litigation experience preferred.
• Prior legal invoice auditing experience either in-house or with a third party legal invoice auditing company strongly preferred.

Preferred Experience:

• Prior US and International legal invoice review and analysis experience in a legal invoice analyst role.
• Prior experience in auditing claims litigation.
• Prior work experience with an insurance company.
• Experience in handling appeals of legal invoice claims adjustments.
• Prior experience with direct communication with law firms in a legal invoice review context.
• Experience with handling conflict with law firms, in writing and telephonically.
• Highly developed communication skills, including both excellent written and verbal skills