Job Description
The Role
The Working Capital Controller is a senior finance role with end‑to‑end accountability for the Australia office's working capital performance across work in progress (WIP), billing, collections, debt, and trust account administration. The role leads a team of working capital professionals and acts as a trusted commercial partner to Partners and senior lawyers, supporting compliant, profitable, and timely delivery of client matters.
Working closely with Partners, Lawyers, and specialist teams (including Business Development, Legal Practice Management, Tax, and Commercial), the role balances strong commercial judgement with rigorous control and policy compliance across local, regional, and global requirements.
This role plays a critical part in protecting cash flow, profitability, and financial discipline, while enabling Partners and lawyers to deliver successful client outcomes.
Key Responsibilities
1. Business Partnering & Stakeholder Management
Build strong, credible relationships with Partners, lawyers, practice support colleagues, and clients; act as a trusted commercial adviser to influence decision‑making.
Proactively follow up with Partners and practice support colleagues on agreed actions to resolve matter, billing, and collection issues.
Respond to financial and commercial enquiries from clients, Partners, and lawyers relating to client matters.
2. Commercial Support & Matter Economics
Partner with Business Development teams at matter inception to ensure new matters are structured in line with firm policies, with optimal profitability and minimal tax risk.
Review and support rate setting for Australian matters, including promoting use of the APAC rate card for Australian support on overseas‑led matters and maintaining awareness of local, regional, and global client rate agreements.
Perform in‑progress reviews of matters and proactively escalate commercial, recovery, and profitability risks to Management, Tax, and Commercial teams.
Champion use of in-house commercial tools and reporting (including MRPT and Power BI dashboards), guiding Partners and lawyers on ongoing profitability analysis.
Support delivery of commercial awareness training to Partners and lawyers in collaboration with the Commercial team.
3. Working Capital Management
Lead regular financial review meetings with Partners and Senior Lawyers covering fees, profitability, billing status, WIP, and debt.
Perform monthly WIP provision assessments in compliance with IFRS 15, including forecasting and reporting the revenue impact of significant provision movements.
Assess and recommend WIP and doubtful debt provisions in line with firm policy.
Closely monitor matter progress and recovery, anticipating WIP write‑offs and uncollectable debts, and escalating risks early to enable timely intervention.
Drive collections performance by focusing on long‑outstanding debts and partnering with Partners to achieve timely recovery.
Set and monitor monthly billing and collection targets based on WIP and debt profiles.
4. Controls, Governance & Team Leadership
Provide strong leadership, coaching, and direction to the Working Capital team to deliver high‑quality billing and working capital support.
Ensure working capital operations comply with firm policies, accounting standards, and local regulatory requirements through training and a robust controls framework.
Act as an approver for billing and working capital controls within Control Manager.
Collaborate with Working Capital Controllers across the global network on cross‑border matters, billing issues, and best‑practice sharing; contribute to regional and global finance initiatives.
Qualifications
Your Experience
- Professionally qualified accountant (e.g. CA, CPA, ACA or equivalent).
- Significant post‑qualification experience in working capital, billing, or commercial finance roles, ideally within a professional services or partnership environment.
- Demonstrated experience managing WIP, billing, collections, and debt provisioning, including application of IFRS 15.
- Proven people management experience, including leading and developing high‑performing teams.
Technical & Commercial Skills
- Strong understanding of matter economics, pricing, profitability, and recovery in a project‑ or matter‑based environment.
- Experience working with billing systems, financial controls frameworks, and commercial reporting tools (e.g. Power BI or equivalent).
- Sound knowledge of accounting standards, internal controls, and policy‑driven environments.
Stakeholder & Leadership Capabilities
- Confident and credible communicator, able to influence senior Partners and stakeholders with commercial insight.
- Strong judgement and problem‑solving skills, with the ability to balance commercial outcomes and risk management.
- Highly organised, resilient, and comfortable operating in a fast‑paced, deadline‑driven environment.
- Collaborative leadership style with a continuous improvement mindset.
Company Description
Who We Are
We are one of the largest international law firms in the world. With over 30 offices across the globe, we strive to exceed the expectations of our clients, providing them with the highest-quality advice and legal insight, which combines the firm’s global standards with in-depth local expertise.
Our firm, work and people span jurisdictions, cultures, and languages. We offer our clients a truly international perspective. We believe every career should be rewarding and stimulating - full of opportunities to learn, thrive, and grow. That’s why we’re so proud of our inclusive, friendly, and team-based approach to work.
You’ll find our clients in commercial and industrial sectors, the financial investor community, governments, regulators, trade bodies, and not-for-profit organisations. But no matter who they are or why they’ve reached out to us, we provide a world-class service every step of the way. And that’s possible thanks to the entrepreneurial spirit and conscientious approach to work that you’ll find across all of our teams.
Whichever area of the business you join, you’ll become an integral part an innovative, diverse and ambitious team of people. Clifford Chance is a place where the brightest minds and the best of colleagues meet.
Additional Information
Equal Opportunities
At Clifford Chance, we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.
We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer and every other aspect of employment.
We have a variety of flourishing employee networks. These networks are a place for colleagues to share experiences and advocate for change wherever they see an opportunity for improvement.
Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm.
Find out more about our inclusive culture here
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