Legal and Finance Assistant for a major contemporary gallery in London.

This newly created position will be based in London and report to The Director of Legal with a dotted line to the Financial Controller. The role would suit a strong administrator with a background in finance or law; you must be interested in the arts, and experience as a registrar may be beneficial. The position is also open to entry-level/graduate applicants.

The role is made up of 2 elements:

• 1) Assisting the Director of Legal and overseeing all stages of drafting agreements for artworks consigned, sold and purchased between the gallery and artists and third parties. Approx 60% of time.
• 2) Assisting the Finance Department with artist-related finance activities, processing invoices and ensuring the stock reconciliation is accurate. There will be an element of ad hoc projects and reporting. Approx 40% of time.

Key responsibilities include:

Legal Assistance

• Generate and manage consignment agreements for artworks consigned to the gallery throughout all gallery entities (UK, USA and China), and the continued management of the artworks throughout the consignment period.
• Control all aspects of the administration related to consignment agreements, including liaising with the gallery’s artist management and sales team to ensure that the consignment agreements are signed, and filed appropriately.
• Ensure all details are kept updated on the database throughout the consignment period.
• Assisting with the drafting of Sale and Purchase agreements, and general contract review.
• Assisting with external requests regarding provenance research.
• Providing cover to the Director of Legal when required, especially with the drafting and review of sale and purchase agreements.
• Providing leave cover where required.

Finance Assistance

• Stock Management - keeping the stock reconciliation up to date and managing stock requests from end to end (from enquiry through to purchase)
• Process invoices - Processing production and artist invoices
• Advisor Fees - Ensuring Introduction letters are in place and signed, obtaining invoice from advisor and scheduling payment.
• Consignor Fees - Ensure consignment agreement is in place, obtain invoices from consignor and schedule payment.
• Work closely with Artist Accountant and Artist Managers to coordinate payment of artists and production costs
• Ad hoc Reporting

Essential skills:

• Strong administration skills, highly organised working methods and an excellent attention to detail.
• Expert knowledge of database management systems.
• Excellent understanding of Apple Mac, PC, Word, Excel
• Finance / Accounting background
• Familiar with multi-currencies accounting
• Strong IT skills, particularly in the use of financial packages, Excel, and databases
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to build strong working relationships
• Ability to work accurately under pressure, using a logical and methodical approach

Desirable skills:

• Legal experience regarding the sale and purchase of goods, and Intellectual Property laws beneficial but not essential.
• Experience with Salesforce / SAP B1
• Good knowledge of the contemporary art market
• Previous experience of drafting and amending agreements.
• Be able to work across a large team based in several countries.
• Previous experience in registration practices and working with a gallery or museum collection.
• Experience of work independently and managing differing priorities. Keeping line managers updated on progress

Salary: £30k-34k