Finance Manager

About the role

The Finance Manager plays a pivotal role in the Finance department, overseeing the finance team, managing internal reporting, and translating strategic priorities into operational plans. This role requires a deep understanding of financial principles, strong analytical skills, and the ability to manage multiple priorities.

Responsibilities

• Support the development and execution of the firm’s financial strategy by building financial and statistical models, evaluating scenarios and trends, and analyzing financial performance.
• Translate the team's strategic priorities into clear operational plans, reporting packages, and analytics for the team to implement.
• Prepare materials and analysis for senior leadership discussions, including dashboards, trend analyses, and executive summaries.
• Manage the day-to-day activities of the finance team, ensuring work is properly assigned, prioritized, completed on time, and adheres to standard methodologies and documentation.
• Provide coaching, mentorship, and performance feedback; support team members' professional development and technical skill-building.
• Oversee preparation and delivery of recurring internal reports, including firmwide performance, practice group, client segment, office-level, and departmental cost and productivity reporting.
• Develop and maintain tools and dashboards that improve visibility into key metrics for firm and practice leadership.
• Aid and lead the operational aspects of the firm’s financial planning cycle, including annual budgets for the firm, offices, and practice groups, as well as periodic reforecasts and multi-period outlooks.
• Prepare and review monthly and quarterly variance analyses versus budget, forecast, and prior periods, highlighting revenue and expense drivers, risks, opportunities, and recommended actions.
• Develop and maintain financial and statistical models to support revenue and expense forecasting, headcount and compensation planning, productivity, utilization, and other performance metrics.
• Define and track key performance indicators for the firm, offices, and practice groups, including realization, utilization, leverage, productivity, and cost efficiency.
• Perform and oversee detailed analyses of practice group and office profitability, matter-level economics (excluding rate-setting and fee strategy), and staffing mix, leverage, and cost drivers affecting margins.
• Conduct rate and realization analyses focused on performance trends rather than pricing decisions; translate analytical findings into actionable recommendations for practice and firm leadership.
• Provide analytical support for working capital, including tracking and analyzing WIP and accounts receivable balances and aging, identifying trends, risks, and actions to improve cash flow.
• Lead process improvement and "finance transformation" at the operational level by standardizing and simplifying recurring reporting and analyses and implementing automation.
• Assist in preparing materials and responses for external industry publications and benchmarking surveys as needed.
• Maintain strict confidentiality of all firm and client information.

Requirements

• Demonstrated leadership and people management skills; proven ability to supervise, coach, and develop high-performing teams.
• Deep understanding of accounting principles and financial statements.
• Working knowledge of SQL for data extraction and analysis.
• Strong understanding of law firm or professional services economics and key performance drivers (e.g., demand, realization, leverage, productivity, WIP/AR dynamics).
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with a proven record of performing deep-dive analyses and synthesizing complex information.
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple priorities, meet tight deadlines, and perform effectively under pressure.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain financial concepts clearly to non-financial stakeholders.
• Strong commitment to ethical conduct, confidentiality, and organizational values.
• Meticulous attention to detail combined with a proactive, solutions-oriented mindset.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution; comfortable "rolling up sleeves" as needed.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to build productive relationships and collaborate effectively at all levels of the organization.
• Sense of urgency and adaptability; able to reprioritize effectively while maintaining composure and providing clear guidance to the team.
• Demonstrated ability to self-manage and work independently in a remote, hybrid, and in-office settings.
• Ability to work effectively independently and as part of a team to promote consistent and efficient workflow processes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Accounting, Economics, or related business discipline.
• Minimum eight (8) years of progressive experience in finance, FP&A, or related analytical roles, preferably within a law firm or professional services environment.
• Minimum four (4) years of experience leading or supervising analysts or similar staff.
• Advanced proficiency in financial analysis, internal reporting, and variance analysis.
• Advanced proficiency with financial systems and analytics platforms, including ERP/GL and time & billing systems; advanced Excel skills (e.g., complex formulas, pivot tables, financial modeling; Power Query/Power Pivot); and BI tools such as Power BI and Tableau.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Outlook, Teams, PowerPoint, Power BI, Tableau, and Excel.