Russell-Cooke is a top 100 UK law firm based in Putney and winner of Law Firm of the Year 2025. We have around 250 lawyers working for a mix of commercial, not-for-profit and private clients and are seeking a highly capable qualified accountant to join our finance team on a 12-month fixed term basis to provide illness cover.
The role will support the 3 financial controllers with operational, reporting and managerial duties. The successful candidate will be joining a well-established and highly regarded Accounts team, with a headcount of 15, known across the firm for its professionalism, reliability, and collaborative approach. Many team members have been with the firm for a number of years, contributing to a stable and supportive working environment.
The firm itself is recognised for its positive culture and commitment to work-life balance, having recently won the Work Life Balance Award at the 2025 Legal Cheek Awards. We pride ourselves on fostering a workplace that values autonomy, trust, and wellbeing—benefiting both our people and our clients.
The ideal candidate:
1. Qualified accountant (ACA, ACCA or CIMA)
2. MS Excel to a high level
3. Highly IT literate and able to learn new systems quickly
4. Confident communicator, able to engage effectively with stakeholders at all levels
Adaptable, proactive and able to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
The Role
The purpose of this role it to provide additional resilience and capacity for the firm’s accounts team, by delivering a varied output. The established members of the team are friendly and highly supportive, and whilst this role would suit a self-starter who would prefer not to be micro-managed, the successful candidate will be well supported by peers who are experts in their fields.
Although this is a 12-month contract, we are also happy to invest in the successful candidate and with training on systems (such as SQL scripting) and/or project management.
Duties include but are not limited to:
5. Change & Project Delivery Lead or support finance-related change projects, including system implementation, upgrades, migrations, and integrations. Conduct risk assessments and testing for system changes. Provide stakeholder communications, training and documentation for new processes and systems.
6. Reporting & Data Integrity Produce ad hoc financial reports and support the development of reporting tools. Ensure accuracy and consistency of financial data across systems. Collaborate with finance teams to improve data flows and reporting capabilities.
7. Maintain and enhance financial systems.
8. Identify opportunities for process improvement.
9. Ensure systems are compliant with regulatory and internal control requirements.
10. Act as liaison between Accounts, IT, other internal users, and external vendors.
11. Month end processes
12. VAT returns and queries
13. Authorisation of payments
14. Partnership administration
15. Internal auditing
16. Ad hoc requests for assistance with client matters
Salary and benefits
We offer competitive salaries and benefits.
We have a diverse workforce and aim to attract high calibre applicants that reflect the demography of our geographical location and client base. Individuals will be employed solely on merit and the requirement of the position. No applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of sex, race, marital status, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender Identity or religion. Reasonable adjustments will be made to eliminate or reduce disadvantage.