Collections Manager

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati•Palo Alto, CA

6d•Hybrid

About The Position

Wilson Sonsini is seeking a Collections Manager to lead the firm’s execution discipline for resolution of aged receivables, accelerate cash realization, and enhance financial accountability to payment terms and timeframes. This role begins as the functional manager and primary owner of the collections process, with the opportunity to build and lead a team as the function scales and demonstrates results. The Manager will partner closely with Revenue, Billing, Finance Technology, Department Leaders and Members to further develop and refine the collections and risk mitigation capabilities of the Firm. The role carries real decision authority within defined limits and the judgment to know when a balance must be escalated rather than resolved independently. This is a hybrid role with 3 days per week of office attendance in the firm’s Palo Alto and/or San Francisco offices.

Requirements

Minimum 7 years of experience in collections at a big law firm, with at least 4 years in firm wide collections management role, or equivalent
Bachelor’s degree in finance, business, information technology, or related field (master’s degree or MBA preferred)
Strong financial judgment and comfort operating in high-stakes professional services environment
Excellent negotiation skills, including the ability to handle difficult client or partner conversations without becoming rigid, emotional or deferential
Operationally disciplined: acts independently, investigates thoroughly, demonstrates resourcefulness, follows through, tracks commitments, closes loops, and helps ensure clarity in the Firm’s collections program
Ability to balance firmness with diplomacy
Strong analytical instincts, comfort with data, dashboards, segmentation, and performance metrics
Technology adopter, especially around AI, promotes workflow automation and scaling of client outreach and collections tactics
Executive presence with partners, finance leaders, and senior business services leaders
Clear written and verbal communication
Ability to simplify complex AR issues into crisp options and recommended actions
Low-ego leadership style: practical, steady, accountable, and team-oriented
Bias toward action and driving results through consistency and persistence
Ability to accurately review contracts, summarize key factors and identify problematic accounts with limited supervision

Nice To Haves

The preferred candidate will provide critical design input and promote development and adoption of AI capabilities that enhance outreach, surface emergent exposure, and support quarterly campaigns.

Responsibilities

Establish a clear aged receivables ownership model for the Revenue Management team, defining owners of delinquent accounts by client, practice, and collections segment, and ensuring application of the collections playbook in support of the firm’s Financial Policy
Lead Financial Policy compliance, executing escalation paths, and resolution playbooks for aged receivables, including prioritizing material client balances, ensuring timing and certainty of payment, taking required account collections actions, and surfacing key decision points for firm leadership
Develop a structured operating cadence for monthly, quarterly and year end collections campaigns, with clear reporting, accountability, and follow through to payment
Scale the collections function from status tracking and targeted intervention to broad and coordinated collections actions to maximize payment opportunities and mitigate risks of nonpayment of ongoing work
Lead the identification, prioritization, and resolution of aged receivables risks, especially high-dollar, high-sensitivity, slow moving or complex balances
Develop tools and reports to surface emergent risks early, before matters become materially aged or require acute intervention, especially by reinforcing a culture of monthly payments across the Firm’s client base
Support partners in sensitive client conversations with clear economics, practical options, and disciplined resolution strategies
Negotiate directly with clients on complex AR workouts, including payment plans, settlements, timing agreements, dispute resolution, and structured repayment plans
Evaluate and manage relationships with external payment solution providers, including electronic payment platforms, card processing, and client payment-plan or financing options, to make it easier for clients to pay and to accelerate cash realization consistent with the Financial Policy
Drive adherence to Financial Policy limits on payment terms, discounting, write-offs, and deferred payments, and exercise defined decision authority over credit and collections actions within established thresholds, including blocking new matters, halting work, or approving continued work at a managed scale for delinquent clients, and escalating balances above those thresholds to the appropriate governing authority for decision
Translate the firm's established Financial Policy into practical execution tools (collections playbooks, escalation tactics, and field guidance) that Members and the Finance Department can apply consistently
Coach Revenue Management and Account Managers, including client assessment, partner communication, written outreach, phone negotiation, escalation judgment and client sensitivity
Contribute as a leader to a culture of appropriate urgency, accountability, judgment and calm persistence