Commercial Finance Analyst

An opportunity has arisen for a Commercial Finance Analyst to support the activities of the firm’s Commercial Finance function. This is a great opportunity for someone looking to further their career in a professional services finance function and will expose the successful candidate to varied range of finance tasks.

About us

CMS is a Future Facing firm with more than 80 offices in over 45 countries and 5,800+ lawyers worldwide. We combine deep local market understanding with a global perspective. We are passionate about building strong relationships with our clients, our people, and the communities we work in.

We take a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to ensure our clients are able to face the future with confidence. We are driven by emerging technologies such as generative AI and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of working.  Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximize their potential and thrive.

About the role

The Commercial Finance team is an integral part of the wider finance function working closely with the Finance Business Partnering team ensuring the firm’s financial success and financial strategy is delivered.

The Commercial Finance team is responsible for ensuring the work delivered by our lawyers is profitable, innovative, and market sensitive, and meets the needs and values of our clients. Primarily this is done by ensuring new work is priced appropriately at the outset by assisting with fee negotiations and making innovative pricing recommendations. However, profitability is also improved by ensuring our business leaders have effective financial support. This is achieved by provision of effective analysis and insight, proactive recommendations, advice on strategy, the formulation and delivery of various training courses, process improvement and policy formulation. The team works very closely with colleagues in our New Business, Business Development, Client Management, Legal Operations and Project Management, and Innovation teams, as well as working directly with business leaders, partners and senior stakeholders across the business. 

The team deals with interesting and dynamic aspects of the firm’s financial arrangements globally; this is a great opportunity for someone looking to expand their finance and commercial skills. 

About you

Reporting to the Head of Commercial Finance and supporting the senior manager and managers within the team, the analyst will help in the delivery of the team’s objectives. The primary role will focus on our most complex, global and strategic clients, proactively ensuring the Client Relationship Partners and other key stakeholders have the financial insights required to support the effective management of the relationship and the client’s financial performance. 

In addition, the successful candidate will support in fee negotiations, analysis of our practice, sectors, clients, matters and partners, assist with the firm’s Annual Pricing Review, handling and analysing large data sets, producing financial reports, trend analysis, highlighting areas of concern, assisting with our key project programme, maintaining the team’s engagement register, analysing the firm’s risk exposure of our conditional fee arrangement register and various other ad hoc related tasks as and when required.

The successful candidate will be ambitious and looking for a long-term career in finance or commercial finance. Experience in a finance setting within a law firm or other professional services firm is essential. Candidates should have excellent numeracy, excel, data and analytical skills and will preferably be either part-qualified or looking to further their professional financial qualifications (e.g. CIMA/ACA/ACCA). A strong academic background is beneficial, within a finance or economics discipline being desirable but not crucial. Experience of commercial finance/pricing would be an advantage but is not essential.

The position requires someone who is self-motivated, requires little supervision and who can demonstrate initiative to highlight issues, identify solutions and deliver them. As the role requires liaising with senior stakeholders internally, and externally, strong and confident written and verbal communication skills are also crucial. 

What’s in it for you?

We want to reward you today and help you plan for tomorrow. We appreciate that everyone is different, therefore we have designed a benefits system that offers choice and flexibility based on individual needs and lifestyles. To name a few, these include:

•    Competitive basic salary (reviewed annually)
•    Flexible, hybrid working policy
•    Generous bonus scheme
•    Up to 25 days holiday (rising to 28 days with service)
•    Holiday exchange scheme
•    Private medical insurance
•    Enhanced parental leave

If you would like to read more information regarding our range of benefits, please visit our Rewards & Benefits page on our website.

Equal opportunities

At CMS, we place diversity and inclusion at the centre of our culture and the heart of our organisation. As a firm we recognise, celebrate, and embrace the diverse talent our society has to offer because we know that to solve big problems, we need the best and brightest minds available to us.  In support of this goal, we commit to actively breaking down barriers which stand in the way of those from diverse backgrounds and play our part in levelling the playing field. 
 
As a Future Facing Firm, we strongly believe that a career in law should be open to people from all walks of life, because not only does diversity of thought and experience make our firm a stronger and more sustainable business, but it also makes it a more rewarding place to work.
 
When recruiting, we prioritise attracting talented people and we actively promote a flexible working environment which enables all our team members to thrive. If you see a role you are interested in, but don’t feel you meet 100% of the criteria we encourage you to still consider making an application. We also welcome applications from those who may be looking to return to the workforce after a career break. 
 
We are proud to say our leadership in creating an inclusive working culture has been celebrated and recognised externally, including being listed for a number of years in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and the Social Mobility Index.
 
We are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer, and we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities, whether visible or invisible. We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment process and in every element of the employee life cycle. If you require assistance, or if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements or adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the Talent Acquisition team at TalentAcquisition@cms-cmno.com who will be happy to support you.

Ready to apply? Here are the next steps.

We look forward to receiving your application online via the CMS careers site. Please contact our Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions. 

Please note that we have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

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