Legal Controller

Flood Law PLLC; Detroit (MI); On-site; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical

Dental

Unlimited PTO

401k with 4% match

Direct access to firm leadership

Job summary

Flood Law PLLC, a Detroit-based litigation firm, seeks a Financial Controller to own the firm's books end-to-end. You will handle trust compliance, monthly closes, and lender-facing reporting while providing tax planning and strategic financial advice to firm leadership.

The role emphasizes high-accuracy accounting, auditable reconciliations, and proactive risk management within a contingency, hourly, and flat-fee practice.

Qualifications

• Experience with attorney trust / IOLTA accounting and three-way reconciliation.
• Familiarity with Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 and related recordkeeping.
• Proficiency in QuickBooks and ability to design a chart of accounts.
• Full-cycle accounting ownership: reconciliations, journal entries, close, and reporting.
• Ability to design revenue and cost tracking by matter.

Responsibilities

• Own trust compliance and monthly three-way reconciliations for IOLTA accounts.
• Perform monthly close and deliver P&L, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.
• Provide tax reporting, adjusting entries, and advisory insights to partners.
• Turn around ad hoc reports within three business days.
• Maintain COA structure to support matter-level cost and revenue reporting.

Skills

IOLTA accounting

Rule 1.15 familiarity

Full-cycle accounting

Financial reporting

Tax planning advisory

Attention to detail

Education

CPA license

CPA candidate (track)

Tools

QuickBooks (Online/Desktop)

MyCase

Clio

Filevine

Job description

Flood Law PLLC is a Detroit-based litigation firm handling criminal defense, personal injury, wrongful death, mass torts, employment, civil rights, and general civil litigation matters. Our revenue arrives through several different doors — contingency, hourly, flat fee, and referral — and our books have to reflect that cleanly. The firm is building out modern accounting infrastructure. We are hiring the professional who will own it.

The role:

We are looking for more than a bookkeeper. The mechanical work (bank feed and vendor bill categorization, financial statement production, standing case-cost and receivables reports) is being automated. We are hiring for trust compliance, adjusting entries, tax positions, lender-facing reporting, and the financial advice the partners make decisions on.

The Legal Controller owns the firm's books end to end and is accountable for a defined set of deliverables on a defined calendar.

Core Responsibilities

Trust and IOLA Compliance:

• Perform and document a monthly three-way reconciliation of the firm's IOLTA account — bank statement, trust liability ledger, and individual client ledger balances agreeing to the dollar.
• Maintain trust accounting in conformity with Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 and applicable Michigan recordkeeping requirements.
• Identify, document, and resolve reconciliation variances as they arise rather than at period end.
• Keep completed reconciliations on file and audit-ready, producible on request without notice.

Monthly Close and Financial Reporting:

• Reconcile every firm account monthly — operating accounts, all AMEX cards, IOLTA, and dormant accounts — with each account connected to a live feed.
• Close and lock the books by the 15th of each month, with no placeholder or suspense balances carried forward.
• Deliver the Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and Statement of Cash Flows monthly, unprompted.
• Produce an AR aging and collections report monthly, with real due dates and standard aging buckets.
• Report revenue separately by fee type: contingency, hourly, flat fee, and referral.
• Produce budget vs. actual reporting by expense category, flagging variances before overspend rather than after.
• Track case cost advances as a firm asset, recorded per case, with both recovery and write-off captured against the case.
• Generate forgiveness and write-off credit memos with reason codes at the time the decision is made, not reconstructed at year-end.
• Maintain the account and sub-account structure that keeps case cost and revenue reporting accurate without manual rebuilding.

Advisory and Tax Reporting:

• Prepare quarterly and on-demand lender and collateral reporting, reconciled to actual case cost and receivable data, at presentation quality.
• Own adjusting journal entries, year-end close, tax capture, and documented, defensible tax positions in coordination with the firm's CPA.
• Provide tax planning and strategic financial advisory to firm leadership — the highest-value part of this role.
• Turn around ad hoc report requests within three business days, produced from the books rather than rebuilt from source documents.

Required Qualifications:

• Demonstrated hands-on experience with attorney trust / IOLTA accounting, including monthly three-way reconciliation of client trust funds.
• Working familiarity with Michigan Rule of Professional Conduct 1.15 and the safekeeping and recordkeeping obligations it imposes.
• Proficiency in QuickBooks (Online and/or Desktop): chart of accounts design, sub-account structure, class and location tracking, bank feed rules, credit memos, and month-end close.
• Full-cycle accounting ownership: reconciliations, journal entries, accruals, financial statement preparation, and close management.
• Ability to design and maintain a chart of accounts that supports revenue segmentation by fee type and cost tracking by matter.
• Accuracy, documentation discipline, and the ability to operate without day‑to‑day supervision.

Preferred Qualifcations:

• Prior controller, accounting manager, or senior accountant experience in a law firm, particularly a contingency‑fee practice.
• Experience with case cost advances, settlement disbursement, and lien and payout accounting.
• Familiarity with legal practice management platforms (MyCase, Clio, Filevine, or comparable) and their trust and billing modules.
• CPA license, or CPA‑track candidate.
• Experience preparing lender or collateral reporting packages.
• Experience implementing accounting automation or migrating a firm onto new financial infrastructure.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Salary range: [$60,000 – $100,000], commensurate with experience.
• Medical, Dental, unlimited PTO, 401k with 4% match.
• Direct access to firm leadership and meaningful influence over how the firm is run.
• A role built around professional judgment rather than data entry.