Senior Manager - Dispute Advisory Services

Job description

KPMG Overview:

KPMG in the UK is part of a global network of firms that offers Audit, Legal, Tax and Advisory services. Through the talent of over 16,000 colleagues we bring our creativity, insight and experience to solve our clients’ and communities’ biggest problems. We’ve been doing this for more than 150 years.

We aim to be universally recognised as a place for great people to do their best work. A firm known for our collaborative and inclusive culture, using technology to empower and equip our people to deliver outstanding work with real flexibility – through inspiring workspaces, innovative ways to collaborate and hybrid ways of working.

With offices across the UK, we work with everyone from small start-ups and individuals to major multinationals, in virtually every industry imaginable. Our work is often complex, yet our mission is simple: To support the UK in a connected world. It guides everything we do, underpinned by our values: Courage, Integrity, Excellence, Together and For Better.

The Team:

Dispute Advisory sits within our "Investigations & Compliance" team and helps clients to establish the facts in relation to an incident, loss or misconduct and then to remediate and recover value. We are experienced in managing diverse issues including fraud and misconduct, regulatory compliance, risk frameworks and modelling and much more.

As a Senior Manager, we expect you to take a lead role on challenging and complex engagements.  You will lead multi-disciplinary teams, manage stakeholders and deliver quality solutions to our clients. You will be expected to originate opportunities through both internal and external relationships and take the lead on business development activities, including marketing, knowledge sharing and practice development.

In the area of Dispute Advisory, you will be expected to exemplify the following key skills:

• Ample experience of drafting high-quality written reports in the context of expert witness/expert determination, advisory appointments and other alternatives as appropriate.
• Ample experience of undertaking and reviewing supporting analysis underlying a claim, a dispute and a deliverable.
• Ample experience of reviewing and understanding a wide range complex concepts and documents as they pertain to the claim they are seeking to support.
• Ample experience in reviewing the work of more junior colleagues and helping those colleagues to develop their skillset.

Above all, we are looking for someone who is passionate about growing the Forensic practice and helping our clients with their most complex challenges. In return, we are committed to helping you to enjoy the role and develop your skills and career within KPMG.

Summary of Role Purpose:

As a Senior Manager within Dispute Advisory Services (“DAS”), you will take a lead role on a portfolio of engagements of varying size and complexity.   

You will have a primary focus on Dispute Advisory Services, although you may also be involved in other types of engagement ranging from financial, fraud or misconduct investigations, through to proactive risk management and regulatory driven compliance work.

Description of the role:           

• Leading a portfolio of Forensic DAS engagements, with a primary focus on Dispute Advisory, providing advice and support in connection with breach of contract, transaction, warranty and completion accounts, expert determinations, expropriations, product recall, and business disruption and other insurance claims
• Taking a lead role in the development of the Dispute Advisory propositions and the Dispute Advisory strategy
• Building relationships with external legal contacts to help secure the pipeline of future projects, and other relevant internal and external contacts as appropriate
• Taking a lead role on proposals/ bids for future work
• Acting independently in delivering engagements, under overall engagement leader supervision
• Day-to-day ownership of the timely progression of the preparation of reports (including oversight and review of drafting of junior members of the team) for partner/director review
• Managing the risks and financials associated with client engagements
• Engaging credibly with senior stakeholders at clients (e.g. board level individuals at corporate clients and/or law firm partners) on behalf of KPMG
• Developing and overseeing more junior members of the team on project assignments
• Recognising the importance of continuous self and team development and actively striving to achieve this

Role dimensions:

Leadership & Management:

• As a DAS Senior Manager you will be expected to lead engagement teams of varying size, which may include both onshore and offshore colleagues, contractors and/or colleagues from other member firms. You will be expected to oversee and train colleagues and take responsibility for the quality of work produced on engagements.
• You will also be expected to effectively manage the risks and financials associated with client engagements.

Stakeholder Interaction & challenges:

• As a DAS Senior Manager you will be expected to liaise directly with clients, client’s external counsel, senior members of the KPMG team and other third parties as required. You may be managing multiple senior level stakeholders across multiple projects at any one time.
• In Disputes work, you will be working with senior client staff who are often extremely invested in the outcome of our work (the quantum of the dispute may be highly material to the organisation) – managing expectations is critical to the client relationships.

Impact, Risk, Accountability & Governance:

• Senior Managers will typically have Engagement Manager responsibilities on large and complex engagements. They will be accountable to the Engagement Leaders on their engagements and responsible for the quality of work produced.
• In Disputes work, there is always a concrete, defined outcome from the dispute process, e.g. the determination of the disputed items in a post-M&A transaction dispute, often given with reasons.  Therefore delivering high quality work (including appropriate management of client expectations about the outcome) is essential. 

The Person:

Essential experience:

• Chartered Accountant (ICAEW) or Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA)
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, organisational, interpersonal, and communication skills, with solid proficiency in Microsoft Office suite
• Significant experience of Forensic Dispute work, be that either as part of the Expert Witness team (in a legal claim) or in the context of a post-M&A transaction expert determination
• Broader experience in audit, financial due diligence, and other Forensic specialisms is beneficial
• Excellent written skills in the context of significant contribution in the drafting of Forensic Dispute reports
• Excellent communication, presentation and collaboration skills
• Commercial awareness and proven track record of managing engagements, and the risks and financials associated with client engagements
• Excellent stakeholder management skills
• Keen attention to detail and an inquisitive mindset
• Ability to understand complex contractual documents (or other alternative) to understand the basis of the dispute we are advising on, and ability to articulate complex and technical findings in both written and oral presentations for a variety of audiences
• Ability to work efficiently and accurately under pressure, whilst also being able to adapt to quickly-changing client needs in the face of an impending deadline
• Ability to balance requirements of a portfolio of engagements, at times with clashing timelines
• Confidence and ability to quickly establish credibility with clients and senior colleagues
• Proven ability to lead and manage teams
• Confidence in challenging existing ways of working and ways of thinking
• A developed network of relevant internal and external contacts
• Excellent people skills, including an ability to inspire and develop junior colleagues
• Experience in business development activities and an enthusiasm to lead on marketing activity and in developing the Forensic DAS practice

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