Responsable des Litiges (H/F)

The Litigation Manager role involves leading and managing Green Britain Group's dispute resolution activities, with a particular focus on business-to-business debt recovery, whilst supporting the wider management of commercial, employment and reputational disputes across the Group.

Green Britain Group, including Ecotricity, is a vertically integrated green energy group employing approximately 900 people and serving approximately 230,000 customers across the UK. The Legal Department is a small, tight-knit and busy team that works closely with the whole Group, utilising modern legal technology and AI-enabled tools to improve efficiency, knowledge management and legal service delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Litigation and Dispute Management

• Lead the day-to-day management of the Group's dispute portfolio.
• Take primary responsibility for B2B debt recovery activities.
• Manage commercial disputes arising across the Group's operations.
• Support the management of Employment Tribunal claims and related employment disputes.
• Assist with media, reputational and other sensitive disputes.
• Assess claims and disputes and provide recommendations regarding strategy, settlement, enforcement and escalation.
• Develop and maintain litigation playbooks, templates, protocols and reporting frameworks.
• Identify opportunities for alternative dispute resolution and early resolution of claims.

Conduct of Proceedings

• Draft and review pre-action correspondence, responses to claims, settlement communications and general inter partes correspondence.
• Prepare or assist with pleadings and court documents.
• Manage disclosure and document preservation processes.
• Coordinate preparation and collection of witness evidence and witness statements.
• Support hearing preparation, trial preparation and enforcement activities.
• Monitor compliance with procedural requirements and court timetables.
• Maintain accurate litigation records and case management systems.

Debt Recovery Function

• Develop and enhance processes for efficient collection and management of debt recovery matters.
• Work with operational, finance, billing and credit control teams to improve information flows.
• Identify trends and opportunities to improve recoveries and reduce disputes.
• Manage enforcement strategies following judgment.
• Establish and track KPIs relating to recoveries and litigation outcomes.

Management of External Advisers

• Instruct, manage and supervise external law firms, barristers and other advisers.
• Manage panel relationships.
• Oversee quality, cost-effectiveness and delivery of external legal services.
• Prepare instructions to counsel and, where appropriate, instruct counsel directly.

Cost Management and Reporting

• Manage the litigation budget and maintain oversight of dispute-related legal spend.
• Track, forecast and report litigation costs, recoveries, provisions and exposure.
• Drive cost efficiencies through effective use of internal resources, technology and external advisers.
• Prepare management information and reports for legal leadership and senior management.

Internal Stakeholder Management

• Act as a key point of contact for business stakeholders.
• Provide practical and commercially focused guidance.
• Promote effective information-sharing between legal, finance, customer operations, HR and other functions.
• Deliver training and guidance on dispute prevention and litigation processes.

Governance, Risk and Compliance

• Assist in identifying legal and commercial risks arising from disputes.
• Ensure disputes are managed consistently with legal and regulatory obligations.
• Support the development and implementation of dispute management policies and procedures.

About You

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE required

Essential Skills

• Minimum 6-7 years' litigation, dispute resolution and/or debt recovery experience.
• Strong understanding of civil litigation procedures and court processes.
• Experience managing litigation matters through all stages of the dispute lifecycle.
• Experience drafting litigation-related correspondence and legal documents.
• Strong organisational, administrative and project management skills.
• Experience managing external legal advisers and controlling legal spend.
• Ability to work independently whilst exercising appropriate judgment.

Desirable

• Experience of B2B debt recovery.
• Experience of commercial litigation.
• Experience of Employment Tribunal claims.
• Experience managing reputational or media-related disputes.
• Experience using legal technology and AI-enabled tools.
• Experience working within an in-house legal team.

Qualifications

Applications are welcomed from candidates with relevant litigation experience and qualifications, including solicitors, Chartered Legal Executives (CILEX), experienced paralegals and other candidates able to demonstrate substantial equivalent litigation experience.

Attributes

• Commercially minded and pragmatic.
• Proactive and solutions focused.
• Resilient and confident managing contentious matters.
• Collaborative and able to build credibility with stakeholders.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-moving and evolving environment.

Success Measures

• Reduction in external legal expenditure associated with dispute management.
• Improved recovery rates and debt collection outcomes.
• Effective retention and development of internal litigation knowledge.
• Timely and consistent management of disputes across the Group.
• Accurate litigation reporting, budgeting and forecasting.

What's in it for you...

• Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution
• Volunteering Day
• Hybrid Working
• Various company discounts (including shops, gyms, days out and events)
• Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days
• Cycle to work scheme, car-pooling and onsite parking available

As a valued member of the team, you will be supporting the Group Environmental Policy and its associated sustainability objectives and targets.

The fast moving nature of the business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to utilise our people in the best possible way at all times and helps our colleagues to make the best contribution in a changing environment.

Ecotricity is Britain's overall greenest energy company- it's more than just green energy - the breadth and depth of our work on green issues is unmatched. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity - the green kind.

Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain - by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.

We don't just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers' bills to make it ourselves too - we have built windmills and sun parks in Britain. We call this turning 'bills into mills'.

We don't just focus on energy though- we built the Electric Highway, Britain's leading network of electric vehicle charging points; we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world; and we launched Britain's greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk, where they use the money from their customers' bills to protect and regenerate Britain's lost rainforests.

Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all.