The firm

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is one of the world’s leading international law firms. The Firm was established in 1884 and has more than 2,000 lawyers. Headquartered in New York with offices in Beijing, Boston, Brussels, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Palo Alto, San Francisco, São Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C., the Firm provides coordinated legal advice and transactional capability to clients around the globe.

Description/Job Summary

The Financial Accountant plays a key role in delivering robust financial control across the European business, with primary responsibility for indirect tax compliance alongside a broader role across Financial and Management Accounting functional activities.

Working closely with colleagues in Finance, the Tax team and functional teams across Europe and other STB offices, the role drives engagement with internal stakeholders, external service providers and advisors, ensuring end-to-end process compliance and adherence to internal and external deadlines.

The role requires a self-sufficient team player who can drive work forward, deliver high quality outcomes, manage expectations, escalate when appropriate and keep stakeholders informed at key milestones.

The role is ideally suited to a candidate with broad experience in professional practice, perhaps looking for their first move to an in-house role.

Responsibilities/Duties

• VAT process and filing ownership across the European business;
• Review of existing end-to-end VAT processes including VAT return preparation for our UK, Luxembourg and Belgian businesses;
• Identify root cause deficiencies and work with the appropriate functional team members to remediate issues at source. For example, Billing or Accounts Payable controls and processes;
• Develop controls and checklists to ensure robust VAT return procedures are in place and adhered to, with a clear escalation mechanism in place;
• Develop and roll out training to the Finance team and other colleagues as required;
• Respond to ad hoc queries from colleagues with respect to the appropriate VAT treatment to be applied;
• Prepare the business for future VAT audits and be on point to work with VAT authorities and advisors in the event of a VAT audit;
• Support the preparation of financial and management accounts, including journals, reconciliations, analysis and decision support, working in collaboration with the finance team members responsible for these areas;
• Assist the budgeting and forecasting process by preparing schedules, analysing trends and liaising with budget holders where required;
• Assist with external audit requests by preparing supporting documentation, responding to queries and coordinating with internal stakeholders;
• Support regulatory, statistical and other external reporting requirements as needed.
• Contribute toward process improvement initiatives;
• Provide regular updates to the Senior Finance Manager and work collaboratively with the Financial Accountant, Management Accountant and wider team on priorities, progress and key issues.