CFO

Totum Partners are delighted to have been retained by a UK top 100 commercial law firm in its search for a Chief Finance Officer. Regarded as a market leader in several of its core markets the firm has approximately 340 staff spread across four offices. Its client base is spread from SME and start-up businesses to Blue Chip firms and global brands. Known as an employer of choice in the sector it has an enviable reputation for development and retention of its staff in both fee earning and business service teams. Reporting into the Chief Executive Officer, the CFO makes up part of the firm's Operations Board alongside selected Partners, the COO and CPO and will drive both the high performance of the finance function as well as the strategy for the overall business. The Finance Department consists of 16 members of staff three of which report directly into the CFO.

The core responsibilities of the role include operational, strategic and compliance-related duties. It also requires strong communication skills for the delivery and explanation of the financial information required to make key decisions in the management and direction of the firm. These communication skills also extends to the training of partners and associates in how to make informed business decisions and offer commercial support when potential business opportunities present themselves. As well as delivering against specific objectives agreed in the Partner's three-year strategy, service delivery duties include managing the firm's annual cycle of budgets, monthly management accounts and annual partnership accounts via the Financial Controller and the team that sits underneath that individual. That team also provides financial reporting that monitors the firm's performance and the CFO interprets that data, prepares reports and presents pertinent advice to the board and partners. The CFO also oversees the Finance Department's transactional team via the Finance Operations Manager and the finance IT systems via the Finance Systems Manager. Review of processes and procedures will be a regular part of the job and the instilling of new, more efficient working practices devised and put into practice. Any systems updates will also be agreed and monitored by the CFO. The role has ownership of financial statutory and regulatory compliance including VAT, HMRC and SRA regulations. The CFO is the first point of contact for the day to day dealings with the firm's auditors and bankers.

Applicants should be qualified accountants (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or international equivalent) with at least 10 years' post-qualification experience and have had an extensive work history in a law firm environment. The firm welcomes additional backgrounds prior to working in the sector but really requires the specialist expertise of working in a commercial law firm. Managing a finance department and operating at a senior-management level needs to be demonstrable on CV's, previous board-level experience is desirable but not a pre-requisite. A high level of IT literacy is highly desirable particularly Excel and larger legal PMS systems.

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