Chief Financial Officer Location: Amherst, NY | Reports to: Firm Partners, COO Compensation starting: $175,000 base, plus performance bonus of up to 10%
Company Overview
We are an established injury and disability law practice with more than 200 employees, representing claimants across multiple states. The firm has grown rapidly over the last 5 years and holds a strong position in its market. We are hiring our first Chief Financial Officer to build and lead the finance function.
This is a hands-on, “build-it” role. You will be the firm's senior financial leader and also its most senior accountant, supported by a bookkeeper and possibly a controller. The right candidate wants a blank slate and real autonomy.
Responsibilities include:
Financial reporting and accounting
- Manage and improve upon existing accounting practices
- Create and produce monthly financial packages and present results to ownership
- Manage the external CPA relationship and annual tax process
Banking and capital
- Serve as primary relationship holder with lenders
- Maintain covenant compliance reporting and forward-looking covenant projections
- Make recommendations regarding capital expenditures and potential financing options
Cash management and forecasting
- Build and maintain a rolling 13-week cash forecast
- Manage weekly cash position, payroll funding, and disbursement timing
- Create long-term revenue and cashflow models under varying financial conditions
Analytics and unit economics
- Build cohort-based models tracking cases from intake through resolution and payment
- Measure acquisition cost and return by marketing channel; advise on allocation of marketing spend
- Track case outcomes, resolution timelines, and realized fees for all case types
- Track attorney performance and help the firm assess each attorney's contribution to firm profitability
- Quantify fully loaded cost to carry a case through resolution for all case types
Budgeting and expense management
- Develop the annual budget with departmental accountability
- Deliver monthly budget-to-actual reporting with variance analysis
- Establish approval thresholds, purchasing policy, and vendor management
- Lead headcount planning aligned to case volume and capacity
Tax and compliance
- Oversee multistate tax compliance
- Coordinate entity structure and ownership tax planning with outside advisors
- Ensure payroll tax compliance across operating jurisdictions
Internal controls
- Design segregation of duties, approval workflows, and cash controls
- Supervise accounting staff and establish review procedures
Systems
- Assess integration between accounting and case management systems
- Lead system selection and implementation
- Build automated reporting that replaces manual analysis
Strategic partnership and operational leadership
- Partner closely with Human Resources, Information Technology, and Operations leadership to align financial planning, organizational goals and growth initiatives
- Collaborate with department leaders to translate operational and performance data into financial insights that support budgeting, workforce planning, compensation strategies, technology investments, growth initiatives, and overall business performance
- Evaluate the financial impact and return on investment of new systems, process improvements, staffing models, and firm-wide initiatives
Qualifications
Required
- 7+ years of progressive finance and accounting experience, including senior-level responsibility
- Demonstrated capability as both a hands-on accountant and a strategic finance partner
- Experience working directly with lenders on credit facilities and covenant reporting
- Strong financial modeling capability, particularly cash forecasting and scenario analysis
- Experience building reporting and analysis where little previously existed
- Bachelor's degree in accounting, finance, or a related field
Strongly preferred
- CPA or MBA
- Experience in contingency-fee legal, personal injury, mass tort, or another business with long collection cycles
- Multistate tax compliance experience
- Services business with significant labor cost structure
- Track record of building a finance function from a small base
- Experience and proficiency using LLMs (Claude, Gemini, GPT, etc.) to improve workflow
What We Offer
- Direct access to and influence with ownership
- Genuine autonomy to design the function as you see fit
- Competitive Health, Dental, 401K match
- Generous PTO and flexibility regarding work from home
Join us as we continue to grow our organization’s impact by ensuring sound financial stewardship while supporting our mission to serve our community with integrity and excellence!
Pay: From $175,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Employee discount
- Flexible schedule
- Health insurance
- Health savings account
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Referral program
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
