Head of Finance

Head of Finance

This role reports to the Managing Partner and work directly with the partnership. You will lead a small finance team and work alongside practice leaders, rather than through layers of management. You will have the firm’s practice-management and accounting systems, and the authority to improve reporting, controls, and cash routines. The setting is an established regional law firm serving business and private clients, with a preference for practical outcomes and sound professional standards.

Key responsibilities

• Produce monthly management accounts and a rolling forecast the partnership can use within agreed deadlines.
• Improve cash by shortening work-in-progress, billing, and debtor cycles without harming client relationships.
• Report practice-level profitability so leaders know which work creates value and which needs a different approach.
• Lead the annual budget and scenario plans that support measured, sustainable growth.
• Keep financial controls, compliance, and audit readiness fit for a regulated professional practice.
• Give fee earners plain-English guidance on pricing, matter economics, and lock-up.
• Build a small finance team that partners rely on for practical advice, not just reports.

Essential Qualifications and Experience

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, or equivalent).
• Led finance in a partnership or professional-services firm, not only in a large corporate function.
• Produced management accounts, forecasts, and cash reporting that a leadership team actually used.
• Improved WIP, billing, debtors, or lock-up in a fee-earning business.
• Explained financial choices clearly to non-finance partners and changed how they worked.
• Comfortable doing the detailed work as well as leading it.

Why this role

• Direct influence on how the partnership allocates time, people, and investment.
• Breadth across reporting, cash, pricing, controls, and people leadership.
• A stable client practice where finance advice is expected to be practical and proportionate.
• Room to raise the standard of financial information as the firm grows

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