Finance Business Partner- Commercial Analysis, Reporting & Insights ( Law Firm)

Working for a leading, international law firm within their commercial finance function

The Role

This is a key role responsible for transforming financial and operational data into actionable commercial insight and reporting. The successful candidate will lead a team of finance analysts and be accountable for the quality, consistency and presentation of management information used by business stakeholders.

Strong leadership and development of the team is important, but this role will also be hands on, combining analytical excellence with strong stakeholder engagement, ensuring decision-makers receive relevant, timely and compelling insights that drive performance improvement and strategic outcomes. As such, the successful candidate will be a highly commercial finance professional with excellent communication skills, strong financial acumen and the ability to translate complex information into clear recommendations for senior stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

Analysis & Commercial Insight (45%)

• Lead the production of insightful financial and operational analysis across practices, sectors, clients and offices
• Develop actionable recommendations that support profitable growth, improved productivity and enhanced financial performance
• Identify commercial opportunities, emerging risks and performance trends through proactive analysis
• Deliver deep-dive reviews relating to:
• Partner performance
• Client profitability / financial performance
• Matter economics
• Practice group and sector performance
• Working capital management
• Strategic investment decisions
• Perform scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis to support strategic decision-making
• Own the delivery of various legal sector benchmarking submissions
• Becoming a SME for the data, KPIs, systems and models used by Finance. The successful candidate will also drive increased use of predictive analytics and AI-enabled analytical capabilities
• Working with the team to schedule and conduct regular financial data audits and quality assurance work to ensure all data that underpins commercial finance activities is trusted, e.g. cost rates, units, notional salaries, profitability calculations, revenue

Executive Reporting & Presentations (20%)

• Own the responsibility for production of high-quality presentations for:
• The Management Committee
• Sector and Office Heads
• Practice Group Leaders
• Partner meetings
• Translate complex financial information into concise, compelling and visually engaging narratives.
• Ensure reporting focuses on business outcomes, key messages and management actions rather than purely financial data
• Maintain high standards of accuracy, consistency and professional presentation across all reporting outputs

Team Leadership (20%)

• Lead, coach and develop a team of three Finance Analysts, providing a structured framework to ensure a high-quality analytical capability which is underpinned by developmental support and coaching for team members
• Establish clear performance expectations and development plans
• Create a culture of continuous improvement, accountability, curiosity, and always being “on the case”
• Review and validate team analytical outputs to ensure quality and consistency
• Champion automation and efficiency initiatives that reduce manual reporting effort and increase analytical capacity. Promote a data-driven culture throughout the team

Business Partnering and Stakeholder Management (15%)

• Understand stakeholder priorities and proactively identify opportunities where financial analysis can support decision-making
• Act as a trusted commercial advisor to stakeholders, helping to interpret performance and identify practical actions for ownership and follow-up
• Confidently influence stakeholder decisions through evidence-based recommendations and constructive commercial challenge
• Partner with colleagues across Finance to provide joined-up insight and avoid siloed analysis
• Provide support with financial planning activities, including budgets and forecasts

Skills and Experience Required

Essential

• Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent)
• Experience leading analytical finance teams
• A high degree of commercial acumen
• Strong financial modelling and data analysis skills with advanced Excel capability.
• Excellent written and verbal communication. Emotionally resilient, and has strength of personality to ensure the perspective of Finance is clearly communicated. The ability to remain calm and focused under pressure
• Excellent soft skills including the ability to influence or challenge senior stakeholders when necessary
• A continuous improvement mentality to support development of self, colleagues and business processes and interactions
• Attention to detail as well as an ability to see the bigger picture
• A dynamic and collaborative team-player with a “can-do” attitude who is transparent and has a straightforward approach
• Gravitas to succeed in a partnership environment and to gain respect as a trusted advisor
• Hard-working and an ambition to grow professionally

Advantageous

• Experience within a services-based business, ideally within a professional services environment
• Experience using AI-enabled reporting and analytical tools