Financial Reporting Accountant

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Job Title

Financial Reporting Accountant

Department

Finance

Office Location

London

Reports To

Technical Financial Reporting Manager

Working Hours

35 hours per week, 9:30am to 5:30pm but additional hours may be required.  We are happy to consider agile and flexible working patterns.  Our approach to hybrid working allows for up to 40% of time working from home and 60% working in the office, please contact a member of the recruitment team to discuss further.

Firm Description

Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms.  Our distinctive market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice, on deep industry knowledge, and on our 'one team' global approach.  Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan Lovells has over 40 offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. 

With a presence in the world's major financial and commercial markets, we are well placed to provide excellent business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally.  Our people are the key to our success, which is why we seek to recruit and retain the most talented individuals in all regions of our global practice.

Department Description

The Hogan Lovells Finance Function which reports to the CFO comprises around 250 staff, around 65 of whom are in London.  The Function has four key areas of responsibility:

• Transaction processing

• Reporting

• Control

• Decision Support

The core Financial and Management Reporting team presently comprises 8 people, reporting to the Group Financial Controller, in London and Johannesburg. The team also works very closely with other teams within Finance and other departments.

Hogan Lovells refers to the combined operations of Hogan Lovells International LLP (HLI) and Hogan Lovells US LLP (HLUS).

Key Responsibilities / Accountabilities

• Keep up to date with changes to regulatory rules, and comply with new and emerging reporting and disclosure requirements.

• Continually assess the adequacy of internal processes, data and controls which support the production of regulatory returns and implement enhancements to increase efficiency and strengthen the control framework as required.

• Work collaboratively with other teams and departments, including the HLI Tax team and local finance managers, to understand and explain Group and local financial reporting requirements.

• Assist in finance automation projects relating to statutory and regulatory reporting.

• Deal with ad-hoc requests from the business relating to reporting.

• Help to optimise processes related to regulatory reporting.

• Interact with the authorities when needed.

• Specific projects include but not limited to:

  • Involvement in the account’s preparation of the Group financial statements and subsidiaries under applicable International Financial Reporting Standards,

  • Involvement with the Group cost allocations and transfer pricing,

  • Reconciliation between Group and local accounts,

  • Accounting Support for HLI Group,

  • Support the preparation of VAT returns in the UK and certain overseas offices.

Accounts Preparation – Hogan Lovells International LLP Statutory Accounts:

Involvement in the preparation of Hogan Lovells International LLP statutory process including but not limited to:

• Accounts preparation and review of the Group's Limited Liability Partnership financial statements under applicable International Financial Reporting Standards.

• Accounts preparation and review of some of the LLP's subsidiary undertakings under applicable financial reporting standards.

• Keeping up to date with changes to IFRS reporting standards.

• Investigate complex accounting issues, document findings, and prepare accounting papers relevant to the Group's operations.

• Liaising with the firm’s auditors for the statutory financial statements.

• Liaising with HLI Finance managers on results of local component audits.

Group Cost Allocation and Transfer Pricing:

• Assisting with the timely preparation and review of HLI centralised adjustments including cost allocation and transfer pricing entries.

• Working with the Tax team to ensure documentation is compliant with tax requirements.

• Working with the Tax team and local HLI managers to ensure compliance with local requirements.

Technical Accounting Support:

• Helping to create best practice rules for transaction and journal processing in 3E and OneStream, including cash and accrual accounting.

• Review of HLI system balancing and processing adjustments where necessary.

Specific duties or responsibilities may be reviewed from time to time to reflect changes in personnel and management structure, staff location or services.

All members of the firm participate in our Responsible Business program.

Person Specification

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Essential

• ACA, ACCA, CIMA or equivalent.

• Microsoft Project skills, Word, PowerPoint and Excel skills.

• Experience of analytical review, interpretation of trends and delivering results in a deadline driven environment.

• Thorough knowledge of the use of Excel spreadsheets.

• Experience of preparation of statutory financial statements.

The Candidate

• Ability to deal with staff both in and outside the UK when required, including staff at senior levels and partners.

• Diplomatic yet persuasive.

• Willingness to work as part of a team, working closely with a number of other qualified accountants and non-qualified staff.  Because of the nature of the work and structure of the department tasks are always specifically allocated to individuals but shared out as workloads require.

• Diligence and have the ability to review critically and also carefully check their own work. The output of the candidate will have a very high profile and errors will be noticed.

• Pro-active and continually looking to add value to the areas of work assigned to them.

• A hands-on approach. There will be little scope for delegation.

• Ability to plan their own work with minimum supervision and ensure tasks are completed in full in accordance with a strict timetable - a proven ability to plan ahead is essential.

• Ability to work under pressure and to tight deadlines.

Desired

• Law firm experience.

• Strong knowledge of IFRS.

• Knowledge of UK GAAP.

• Knowledge of UK tax filing requirements, with a particular focus on corporation tax and VAT.

Agile Working Statement

Our goal is to embed flexibility across our business by giving everyone the opportunity to work in an agile way, whether as a regular pattern or on an ad hoc basis, and we will be happy to discuss this further.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of Hogan Lovells to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion.  Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of racial or ethnic origin, religion, sex , gender and gender identity, age, sexual orientation, marital and civil partnership status, pregnancy or disability.