Main purpose of the role – To work with the Head of the practice group and the group’s management team to ensure robust financial management of the group, driving performance improvement and providing a high quality finance business partnering service. The Commercial Finance Manager will oversee the work of analysts while also co-ordinating and directing the contribution to the practice group of other areas of finance including, Financial Control and Working Capital management, and work with the Firmwide Financial Planning & Analysis team to ensure there is an understanding of the group’s performance in the context of the wider firm.  

The practice group contains five product groups which specialise in different sectors to provide a full range of dispute resolution and arbitration services. The group is made up of over 400 legal advisors and has revenues in excess of £100m per annum.

Key responsibilities:

• Key member of the group’s leadership team, helping to deliver the strategic vision of the group by focusing on the financial performance of the group including the three year profitability plan
• Overall responsibility for the reporting, analysis and commentary of the practice group’s financial performance both in management meetings and for inclusion in practice group management meetings.
• Driving monthly financial performance review meetings with the practice group head and management team, setting targeted agendas and associated performance improvement plans
• Responsibility for leading and co-ordinating practice group budgeting, planning and forecasting as well as contributing to target setting. 
• Proactively identifying areas of under or over performance in the businesses within the group,  and making recommendations to address root cause.
• Researching peer performance and driving change within the practice group relative to external and internal bench marks
• Providing commercial finance support to the practice group head, all Partners and fee earners, including support on new business case development, pitch support and recruitment proposals.
• Working with all Partners to develop a strong ‘trusted’ advisor status
• Understanding the financial control and statutory reporting environment for the business, including supporting the appropriate legal entity recharges and signing off on the content of the statutory accounts of the different legal entities within the practice group
• Supporting development of a part qualified finance analyst.

Skills and experience:

The individual will be a qualified accountant (ACA/ CIMA / ACCA / International equivalent) with at least 8-10 years PQE, ideally in a professional or financial services background and be able to demonstrate:

• Proven experience in influencing and implementing business strategies and initiatives. Can take a strategic view of the business and demonstrate how financial management can to improve and deliver these plans 
• Proven finance partner and trusted advisor to the business able to demonstrate the creation of a results driven environment 
• Strong verbal, written and presentation skills with an ability to write insightful financial and commercial commentaries based upon sound financial analysis under demanding deadlines.
• Strong knowledge of management information systems (including Excel) and making best use of these for reporting purposes. 
• Highly organised approach with the ability to prioritise and redistribute work across the team as needed
• Willingness to engage with the business at a variety of levels from the strategic to dealing with operational issues and queries as needed, from high level analysis to more detailed work 
• Experience of working with a team of qualified professionals and analysts is essential
• Ability to see things from the business leaders point of view in order to be customer centric when thinking about the finance teams delivery.  
• Reliable, enthusiastic and have a ‘can do’ approach 
• Strong commercial awareness with experience and ability in understanding complex and diverse business requirements 
• Shows tolerance for ambiguity and changing demands