Senior Partnership Accountant

At BCLP, we’ve built our firm on the foundations of thinking differently. Curious, inquisitive and unbound by tradition, we’re building change within our sector and beyond.

It starts with our people, which is why we need a Senior Partnership Accountant to join our team. We are seeking an experienced, highly detail-oriented professional to join our global Partnership Accounting team. This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated individual with strong partnership accounting expertise to further develop their career within a leading international law firm.

The role supports the firm's global partnership accounting and partner finance activities, including the calculation and payment of partner profit allocations, management of partner capital and associated funding arrangements, tax reserving, and the reconciliation and analysis of partner accounts.

The successful candidate will be responsible for complex multi-currency account reconciliations to Elite 3E in transaction, unit, and firm currencies, along with performing global accounting procedures and tasks that are unique to partners. Given the nature of partnership accounting, exceptional attention to detail and a high level of accuracy are essential.

About the Team

The Partnership Accounting team supports all aspects of partnership accounting across the firm globally.

The role involves regular internal interaction with Partners and close collaboration with colleagues across the UK and US. The UK team are based within our London office. This position follows a hybrid working model, with a minimum requirement to attend the London office three days per week.

Key Relationships

The Partnership Accounting and Tax team forms part of the wider Finance and Accounting Department. The successful candidate will work closely with team members who are located within both the US and UK. They will also work with the Partnership Tax team and need to build good relationships with the Partners, the Financial Controllers, the Financial Accounting team, and the Cash Operations team.

Critical Success Factors

• The successful candidate will need to demonstrate:
• Exceptional attention to detail, with the ability to identify anomalies, investigate discrepancies and maintain a high degree of accuracy.
• The ability to identify and investigate variances independently.
• Robust reconciliation and financial controls expertise, underpinned by thorough self-review and effective sense checking to ensure accuracy.

Key Responsibilities

Working closely with the Partnership Accounting team, you will assist the team with a range of global partner accounting processes, including but not limited to the following tasks:

• Calculating and processing partner payments.
• Preparation of partner accounting journals.
• Preparing individual partner statements, leaver calculations, and cashflow illustrations for both US and EMEA partners.
• Monthly reconciliation of individual partner accounts, benefits and insurances to Elite 3E.
• Assisting with global partner budgets and supporting budget to actual analysis.
• Monthly review of the global partner capital reconciliations and interest calculations, including following up to ensure capital contributions are received promptly and on time.
• Maintaining the global partner listing and profit allocation schedules, ensuring partner remuneration changes are updated daily, and ensuring supporting documents are saved within Imanage.
• Maintaining the global list of partner special arrangements. Updating partner remuneration arrangements, special arrangements and bonuses within our HR system PeopleSoft
• Conducting partner induction and departure meetings to explain financial arrangements and obligations.
• Monitoring and managing the shared US and EMEA mailboxes, ensuring partner queries are resolved promptly and professionally.
• Maintaining and updating the global team task schedule, to ensure tasks are completed on time.
• Reviewing and approving US partner payments and ensuring ad hoc global partner payments are processed accurately and on time.
• Creating and maintaining a global partner cashflow forecast.
• Performing first level reviews of US and EMEA partner drawings and distribution calculations.
• Assisting with internal and external audit requests and other accounting queries relating to partners.
• Supporting the Partnership Accounting Senior Manager with global projects, policy implementation, identification and implementation of process improvements and the promotion of consistent practices across regions.
• Ability to cover key tasks for team members within both the US and UK when colleagues are out of the office and during busy periods.
• Providing assistance and support to other team members as required.

Skills, Experience & Knowledge

Experience

• Demonstrable experience across most or all of the responsibilities outlined above.
• Minimum of 8 years' accounting experience within a professional services organisation, partnership structure, or accountancy practice.
• Significant partnership accounting experience gained within a law firm or similar partnership-based environment.
• Part-qualified or fully qualified accountant desirable, but not essential.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel and analytical skills.
• Strong reconciliation and financial analysis skills.
• Clear and effective communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Ability to prioritise tasks and manage competing priorities across multiple stakeholders in a fast-paced environment with changing work priorities.

Personal Attributes

• Takes pride in producing accurate, high-quality work.
• Highly organised with excellent time management, prioritisation and planning skills.
• Positive, proactive and collaborative, with the ability to build effective working relationships across teams.
• Able to work independently, using sound judgement and initiative with minimal supervision.
• Adaptable and responsive to change, with a willingness to challenge the status quo and embrace new ways of working.
• Continuously seeks opportunities to improve processes, controls and operational efficiency.
• Able to communicate complex financial information in a clear, meaningful and accessible manner.
• Enjoys collaborating with colleagues across multiple locations, including the UK and US, both in person and remotely.
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities while maintaining exceptional attention to detail.
• Flexible and willing to provide additional support during peak periods to ensure key deadlines are met.

Agencies:

Please note that BCLP does not accept speculative or unsolicited resumes submitted directly to hiring managers, partners or other employees. Candidate submissions will only be accepted from agencies that have agreed terms of business with the Recruitment Team and are submitted via the approved recruitment portal.

Any resumes submitted outside of this process will be treated as unsolicited, and BCLP reserves the right to engage such candidates without any obligation to the submitting agency, including the payment of any fees. For further information, please contact resourcing.team@bclplaw.com

At BCLP we understand the value of a workforce with diverse perspectives and experiences, and we believe people perform at their best when they can truly be themselves at work. We aim to create an inclusive environment where all our employees are valued, motivated and able to be themselves. In order to provide the best possible service to our robust client base, we are committed to recruiting, retaining, rewarding and developing our people with regard to their abilities and contributions and without reference to their background, gender, gender identity or expression, ethnic origin, age, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, political belief, disability or any other applicable protected characteristic.

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