Working Capital Senior Manager

Job Description

We are recruiting for a Working Capital Senior Manager to join our Finance team in London.

Achieving the firm's vision requires a world class Finance department and our team add value when the information we produce enables great decisions, particularly with regard to working capital and profitability. That means producing information that is relevant, accurate and understandable and doing so as quickly as possible. It also means building relationships with the Partners and other decision-makers in the firm so that they trust us to advise them on what the information means and what the best course of action is.

To support the UK Head of Working Capital in delivering a robust, commercially focussed service for managing the entire London working capital life cycle from time‑recording to cash collection.

• Pro-actively champion best practice in working capital management and actively embed this within key, large client relationships and/or individual client matters to enhance matter profitability.
• Ensure London Partners and department heads are receiving a seamless service across all aspects of the working capital life cycle.
• Improve profitability through minimizing write‑offs (arising at the point of bill, through careful monitoring of worked value vs. budgets, and through collection strategy structures) to maximize matter recovery.
• Lead, train and develop the team of Working Capital Managers & Controllers ensuring they comply with the firm's accounting policies and procedures.

The focus of the role is on the London business, although the team is also responsible for monitoring and managing a small number of global clients.

Working Capital Management

• Play a key role in evaluating monthly inventory position to assess ability to achieve budgeted billing and collection targets.
• Manage the region's client revenue and net investment balances (WIP and Debts), meet with partners to discuss and deeply understand increasing client exposures.
• Acquire a deep understanding of the various types of transactions and cases across regional partner books and initiate conversations to ascertain the prospects and timing of billing and collection.
• Closely monitor the financial risk buildup on large matters and strategize with partners to implement plans to avoid write-offs and maximize recoveries.
• Play a lead role in the annual WIP valuation exercise for the financial audit and answering other audit queries.
• Support the Head of Working Capital in working capital improvement initiatives, deputizing as required.
• Take an active role in the global Working Capital "Task Force" project, developing solutions for the region and globally.

Pricing, Matter Profitability and Project Management

• Project manage a selection of clients and/or matters with a "Legal Project Management" lens to monitor effective legal staffing, and control margins through the assessment of time and cost write‑offs and support proactive measures to increase margins where possible.
• Analyse current billing and profitability information and other items of a complex nature for reporting and problem‑solving including PPP analysis of individual matters.
• Review write‑off narratives searching for trends & areas for potential improvement.
• Prepare and model budgets for matter partner's review prior to accepting new engagements.
• Delivery and design of reporting metrics to highlight improvements on days to bill and collect and demonstrated reductions on discretionary write‑downs.
• Schedule practice group meetings to review partner, matter and client performance.
• Deliver ongoing training to associates and counsel for best practices on matter management.

Relationship Management

• Act as business partner and trusted advisor to London partners and other senior decision makers.
• Develop strong working relationships with partners, counsel and associates and support Finance practice managers with difficult or complex partner requests.
• Establish good working relationships with external clients to facilitate the resolution of issues that may arise.
• Pre-empt client queries by applying knowledge from prior engagements to identify and…