Director of Client Accounts

Cooley•San Francisco, DC

About The Position

Cooley is seeking a Director of Client Accounts to join the Accounting & Finance team. The Director of Client Accounts partners closely with attorneys and firm leadership to drive strong billing practices, support overall financial performance, and enhance billing efficiency. A key focus of the role is leveraging technology and process improvements to optimize billing workflows and shorten the billing cycle, while maintaining high standards of accuracy and service.

Requirements

After orientation at Cooley LLP, exhibit proficiency in the Microsoft Office suite, iManage and other firm applications
Ability to work extended and/or weekend hours, as required
Ability to travel, as required
10+ years of directly relevant exempt level applicable experience in the field with 5+ years management experience in relevant roles
Bachelor’s Degree

Nice To Haves

Supervisory experience
Prior law firm experience
3E experience highly preferred

Responsibilities

Lead and manage US and Asia direct reports, including staffing, workload oversight, and employee lifecycle activities in partnership with HR
Oversee end-to-end billing operations, ensuring accuracy, efficiency, compliance, and timely month-end close, and deliver performance reporting to CFO and Director of Revenue
Drive continuous process improvements to eliminate inefficiencies and enhance billing workflows
Monitor, report, and escalate unbilled WIP aging to partners and leadership, ensuring visibility to revenue exposure on matters where work has been performed but invoices have not yet been billed
Work closely with New Business to evaluate new and updated Outside Counsel Guidelines (OCGs), propose amendments, identifying non-compliant or unfeasible requirements, and determine overall acceptability of engagement terms
Oversee Intellectual Property (IP) billing operations, including management of patent fixed-rate structures, annual rate updates, creation and retirement of task codes, guidance on billing procedures, and implementation of invoice template changes
Serve as a resource to billing partners, by providing guidance on billing best practices, including discounting, matter closures, financial analysis, and effective invoice presentation
Oversee biannual PwC audit processes by coordinating the collection of approved pro formas and supporting documentation, ensuring all billing approvals (including write-offs and discounts) are properly documented, validating compliance with client billing guidelines, and managing submission of audit materials through the PwC portal
Track and manage secondment agreements, including identifying new agreements and coordinating with the team to issue monthly secondment services for prior periods
Serve as direct supervisor and mentor to direct reports
Provide day-to-day supervision of direct reports, ensure compliance with assigned work hours and monitor for compliance with all firm and department policies.
Manage staffing coverage, review and process time logs/time off requests
Support business professional development and continued educational opportunities
In collaboration with immediate supervisor and central HR, participate in hiring, performance appraisals, counseling, termination and other employee lifecycle events
All other duties as assigned or required