Finance Officer

IPReg is the independent regulatory body for patent and trade mark attorneys. The Legal Services Act 2007 (LSA) requires those involved in the regulation of legal services to separate the representative activities of their professional bodies from their regulatory functions. IPReg regulates around 3,440 individual attorneys (of whom around 70% are patent attorneys, 24% are trade mark attorneys and 6% are on both registers). We also regulate around 250 firms.

Some of the matters that we are responsible for include:

• Setting and enforcing our Core Regulatory Framework.

• Setting the education and training requirements for qualification as a patent attorney and as a trade mark attorney;

• Maintaining the registers of patent attorneys and trade mark attorneys;

• Setting the requirements for continuing professional development in order that patent attorneys’ and trade mark attorneys’ knowledge, skills and expertise are maintained at a high level;

• Investigating complaints of misconduct and, where appropriate, taking disciplinary or other action.

This is an exciting time to be part of legal services regulation – and the intellectual property sector (IP) in particular which will play a key role in the UK’s future economic success. We work on a variety of different regulatory projects and are just starting a major review of our education requirements. We also undertake investigations into complaints and can take disciplinary action against attorneys.

We are a small team of 7 members of staff, most of whom work part time. We also have a Board of 9 Directors, chaired by Lord Smith of Finsbury. Our annual budget is ~£1.2m, most of which is funded by practising fees paid by attorneys and their employers.

We want to recruit a highly motivated and self-sufficient Finance Officer who can work on their own initiative (you will be the only person on the team who has a specific finance role). We are introducing some exciting changes to some aspects of the finance work including outsourcing payroll provision, integrating expenses claims and automating invoice processing. You will have the opportunity to play a key part in driving efficiency through those changes. Of course, you will also be responsible for keeping track of our finances using QuickBooks Online and will play a key role in the collection of practising fees each year through our CRM.

Some of the key responsibilities:

• Keeping all necessary up to date and accurate financial and accounting records for IPReg Limited, including processing invoices.

• Updating and monitoring payroll provision (Board and Team), expenses, and fee payment systems by external provider and dealing with associated enquiries.

• Checking expense claims from Board and Team members via external provider.

• Budget planning/monitoring including drafting practising fee applications to the LSB using standard templates.

• Payment of invoices and bills – on CEO’s authorisation.

• Liaison with external auditors and filing accounts at Companies House.

• Liaison with banks and payment provider.

• Assisting with the annual re-registration process including finance functions on the CRM.

• Answering enquiries from external parties.

• Identifying opportunities for efficiencies in the finance functions and making recommendations to the CEO.

• CCAB Accountancy Qualification.

• Experience in compliance, governance and internal control.

• Experience of invoice and expense processing.

• Experience of payroll.

• Provision of finance reports.

• Excellent IT skills.