Law firm Flint Bishop has announced the appointment of a head of debt services, who will oversee the continued growth of its national debt recovery and outsourced credit management operations.

Niall Gilhooley has joined the firm having spent the last 13 years as operational lead of Irwin Mitchell’s specialist debt recovery business, Ascent. His position as CEO involved leading over 200 employees in delivering outsourced credit management and litigation services to some of the UK’s leading financial institutions.

During his tenure at Ascent, Gilhooley led the transformation of what was effectively a ‘start- up’ to achieving a £10m+ turnover business.

He has also held senior roles within companies such as PRA Group, Provident Financial Group and Lloyds Banking Group.

Gilhooley’s new role as head of debt services will be centred around developing the existing operating model and operational resilience to deal with increased demand from high-profile clients.

“I am delighted to be joining Flint Bishop at such an exciting time for the firm,” Gilhooley said. “The strategic vision for the firm is remarkable, and I am eager to begin developing the debt services range as we adapt to economic factors and other market opportunities, whilst continuing to exceed clients’ expectations with our core debt recovery operations.”

The firm’s debt services operation up until this point has been overseen by Flint Bishop’s chief executive, Qamer Ghafoor, who built the division from the ground up.

“I am very pleased to welcome Niall to the firm and to be handing over leadership of our debt services operations.” Ghafoor said. “He is a key appointment for the firm and an integral part of our growth strategy. Niall’s breadth of insight will prove invaluable as we look to further grow our already high-performing debts services.”

“Our debt services division is on a steep trajectory for further strategic growth having successful secured or extended third-party debt collection partnerships with several household names in recent months. Flint Bishop is widely recognised as one of the premier national firms for volume commercial debt recovery in the UK as evidenced by our recent Law Firm of the Year award win at the 2022 Credit Awards earlier this month.”