Chief Financial Officer at Arnall Golden Gregory in Atlanta, GA

Position title: Chief Financial Officer

Department: Finance and Accounting

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Reports to: Managing Partner

Direct reports: Controller, Revenue Manager, Director of Reporting and Analytics

Department size: 25 budgeted positions across Atlanta and Washington, D.C

Functional scope: Accounting and finance only. All other administrative functions report to the Chief Administrative Officer.

FLSA status: Exempt

POSITION SUMMARY

The Chief Financial Officer owns the financial strategy, financial integrity, and financial operations of the firm. The position leads a two-director finance organization and a department of twenty-five, and serves as the firm’s principal financial advisor to firm leadership on profitability, pricing, capital, and the economics of how the firm practices law.

This is a succession hire. The incumbent Chief Financial Officer is retiring, and the firm is filling the role at a moment when its financial systems, its revenue cycle, and its profitability reporting are all being rebuilt. The successful candidate inherits a functioning department with defined leadership roles and an active modernization agenda.

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

The finance organization is structured under three directors who report to this position:

• Controller — owns the general ledger, financial close, State and Local tax compliance, accounts payable, payroll accounting, and the financial systems analyst function.
• Revenue & Accounting Manager — owns rate architecture, alternative fee arrangement administration, cash applications, and profitability analysis, including ownership of the Curo profitability module.
• Director of Reporting and Analytics — owns enterprise business intelligence, management reporting, the firm’s audit programs (both financial and SERP), Federal tax compliance, retirement plan compliance (in conjunction with the firm’s Chief Human Resources Officer) and the analytics layer serving firm leadership and the practice groups.

A newly created Billing and Collections Manager reports to the Revenue Manager and leads a team of ten across the Atlanta and Washington, D.C. offices. The firm is implementing Fulcrum GT as its financial system of record, with user acceptance testing underway.

The functional scope of this position is accounting and finance only. Information Technology, Human Resources, facilities, marketing, and firm administration report to the Chief Administrative Officer, not to this position. The Chief Financial Officer partners with the Chief Administrative Officer on anything crossing that boundary but does not direct those functions.

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

1. Financial strategy and planning

• Owns the firm’s annual budget, multi-year financial plan, and the financial modeling behind strategic decisions including office expansion, lateral and group acquisition, practice investment, and merger evaluation.
• Owns cash flow forecasting, distribution planning, and the firm’s liquidity position throughout the fiscal year.
• Leads the economic analysis supporting practice group strategy, including contribution and profitability modeling by practice, office, client, matter, and timekeeper.
• Partners with firm leadership to evaluate and improve firm, client and matter level profitability and translate financial results into decisions about pricing, staffing leverage, capital allocation, and partner accountability.

2. Financial reporting, controls, and compliance

• Owns the integrity of the firm’s financial statements and the monthly, quarterly, and annual close.
• Owns the internal control environment, including segregation of duties over disbursements, adjustments, write-offs, and trust accounting.
• Owns the relationship with the firm’s external accountants and the annual audit or review, and the firm’s tax compliance and planning position.
• Owns trust and client funds accounting compliance with applicable bar and jurisdictional requirements.
• Leads the firm’s response to client audit requests, outside counsel guideline financial provisions, and client billing compliance reviews.

3. Revenue cycle and working capital

• Owns the firm’s working capital performance; realization, days to bill, days to cash, aged accounts receivable, and unbilled work in process.
• Leads, through the Director of Revenue, the rate-setting cycle, alternative fee arrangement governance, and the firm’s pricing discipline.
• Partners with practice group leaders and billing attorneys to hold the firm to its own billing and collection standards, including escalation of chronic delinquency.
• Supports the Billing and Collections Manager’s execution agenda without displacing the Director of Revenue’s governance ownership.

4. Partner compensation, capital, and distributions

• Owns the administration of the partner compensation system, including the data, modeling, and analysis supporting the compensation committee’s deliberations.
• Owns partner capital accounts, capital calls, capital returns to withdrawing and retiring partners, and the firm’s capital structure.
• Owns the mechanics of partner draws, distributions, and year-end true-up.
• Supports the compensation committee as a data and modeling resource, with recommendations on structure rather than on individual partner outcomes.

5. Banking, treasury, and risk

• Owns the firm’s banking relationships, operating and revolving credit facilities, covenant compliance, and lender reporting.
• Owns treasury operations, cash positioning, and investment of firm funds within board-approved policy.
• Partners on real estate economics, including lease negotiation and build-out modeling for office expansion and renewal.

6. Financial systems and data

• Owns the financial systems roadmap and the accounting and finance requirements within the Fulcrum GT implementation and any successor initiatives.
• Leads the governance of financial data quality across the practice management, billing, and reporting environment.
• Supports the Director of Reporting and Analytics in setting the standards for what firm leadership sees, how often, and against which definitions.

7. Leadership of the finance organization

• Owns the structure, staffing model, and talent strategy of a twenty-five person finance and accounting organization across three offices.
• Leads two directors, sets their objectives, and develops the firm’s bench for finance leadership succession.
• Owns the department’s compensation bands and their maintenance against market, in partnership with Human Resources.
• Leads the department’s performance standards, written policies, and documented procedures.

DECISION RIGHTS AND AUTHORITY

• Expenditure and contract signing authority thresholds.
• Authority to approve write-offs, discounts, and adjustments, and the thresholds above which committee approval is required.
• Authority to open, close, and modify banking relationships and to draw on credit facilities.
• Authority over finance department hiring, termination, and compensation actions.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Internal — Managing Partner, Executive Committee, Finance Partner, practice group leaders, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel, and the partnership generally.
• External — the firm’s bank and lenders, external accountants and tax advisors, financial systems vendors, landlords, and clients on escalated financial and audit matters.

FIRST-YEAR PRIORITIES

These are the outcomes against which the first year should be assessed. Numeric targets are set with firm leadership against a documented baseline within the first ninety days.

• Fully integrate the new financial system of record including the pricing / profitability modules into the firm’s standard operating procedures.
• Deliver a reliable and repeatable profitability view by practice, office, client, and matter that firm leadership will actually use in decisions.
• Improve working capital performance against baseline realization, days to bill, days to cash, and aged accounts receivable.
• Complete a full assessment of the finance organization’s structure, controls, and bench strength, with a documented plan for each gap identified.
• modernize financial reporting and define the cadence and definitions that firm leadership and the practice groups operate from.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• Twelve or more years of progressively responsible finance and accounting leadership experience, including at least five years at the Chief Financial Officer, Director of Finance, or equivalent senior finance leadership level.
• Demonstrated ownership of the full finance function: planning and budgeting, financial reporting and close, internal control, treasury and banking, and tax compliance coordination.
• Direct experience leading a multi-person finance organization through defined managers or directors, including performance management and organizational design.
• Demonstrated command of a professional services or partnership economic model; revenue recognition on services, working capital and realization dynamics, owner or partner compensation, and capital accounts.
• Experience owning banking relationships and credit facilities, including covenant compliance and lender reporting.
• Demonstrated ability to present financial analysis to, and hold ground with, an owner group; partners, principals, or a board; including on decisions that are unwelcome.
• Bachelor’s degree in accounting, finance, business, or a related field, or equivalent relevant experience.

Preferred

• Law firm finance leadership experience, particularly at an Am Law 200 or comparable multi-office firm.
• Certified Public Accountant.
• Direct experience administering a partner compensation system and partner capital accounts.
• Experience with law firm pricing, alternative fee arrangements, and matter-level profitability analysis.
• Familiarity with Fulcrum GT, Aderant Expert, Elite, or comparable legal practice management and financial platforms, and with enterprise business intelligence tooling.
• Multi-office and multi-jurisdiction operating experience, including trust accounting across jurisdictions.

COMPETENCIES

• Ability to communicate with and lead finance and accounting team members in a manner that elicits the best individual and team results and creates the most cohesive work environment.
• Judgment under partnership governance. Comfort operating where authority is shared, decisions are consensus-driven, and the owners are also the workforce.
• Analytical rigor with a point of view. Builds the analysis and then states the recommendation, rather than presenting options without a position.
• Communication to a non-financial audience. Translates financial results into practice economics that attorneys will act on.
• Composure in difficult conversations. Holds partners to firm financial policy without damaging the relationship.
• Systems and process orientation. Improves how the work is done, not only what the numbers report.