Estate and Trust Accounting Specialist

Job Description

Job Description

Estate and Trust Accounting Specialist

Jennifer Martin Attorney at Law | Lake Oswego, Oregon | Full time, in person only, no remote work | $25 to $32 per hour, depending on experience | Minimum five years of bookkeeping or AR/AP experience required

About the position

I run a small estate planning and probate law office in Lake Oswego, and I am looking for a careful, numbers-minded person to become the accounting and records backbone of the practice. This is not a job that requires legal experience. It requires someone who can reconcile an account to the penny, keep a clean paper trail, follow a format precisely, and take real satisfaction when everything ties out. If you have spent at least five years doing hands-on work in accounts receivable, accounts payable, bookkeeping, banking, escrow, or public-sector finance and are ready for work with more variety and more responsibility, this position was written with you in mind. I will teach you the legal side. One thing to know before you read further: this is an in-person position in our Lake Oswego office, five days a week. The work is paper-intensive, the files, statements, checks, and signed originals live in the office, and there is no remote or hybrid option, now or later.

What the work looks like

When a person dies, someone has to account to the court for every dollar that came into and went out of the estate, and the same is true for trusts and for the estates of people under a conservatorship. That is the core of this job. You would work with the client to gather the bank statements, receipts, cancelled checks, and invoices, ask for an explanation of any payment that needs one, and follow up patiently when something is missing. From that material you would build a ledger of every receipt and disbursement, reconcile it to the bank statements exactly, match a voucher to every payment, prepare a schedule of the assets, and tie it all together into a report that a judge and the family can follow. It has to be right, and it has to be easy to read.

Beyond the accountings, you would track deadlines for the office, fill in court filings and letters from my templates, keep the financial records for the estates and trusts we administer, communicate with banks, title companies, and accountants, and talk with clients, who are often older and often grieving. You would work directly with me every day, and I train people rather than handing them a binder.

Who tends to do well in this job

•       A minimum of five years of hands-on experience in accounts receivable, accounts payable, bookkeeping, bank reconciliation, escrow, or a city or county finance office. This means years spent doing the entries and the reconciliations yourself; supervising a store, a department, or a team is valuable experience but does not substitute for it.

•       Working experience with QuickBooks or comparable accounting software, and comfortable in Excel and Word, able to build a clean spreadsheet from a stack of bank statements.

•       Careful with details and honest about mistakes; you would rather find the error yourself than have someone else find it.

•       Comfortable calling a client to ask for a missing statement or an explanation of a payment, and persistent about following up until you have it.

•       Steady, organized, and happy in a small office where the work varies from day to day.

•       Able to put in extra hours when a deadline requires it, without being asked twice.

•       Typing speed of at least 40 words per minute.

•       A valid driver's license, reliable transportation, and willingness to make occasional trips to the courthouse, the bank, or another law office during the workday. Mileage is reimbursed.

•       Familiarity with using AI tools well in a professional setting is a plus.

No legal experience, paralegal certificate, or degree is required. If you have them, that is welcome, but the five years of accounting and records work is the requirement, and applications without it will not move forward.

Schedule, pay, and benefits

This is a full-time, 40-hour-a-week position in our Lake Oswego office, in person ONLY. It is not remote and it is not hybrid, and that will not change; the job is built around physical files, original documents, and checks that have to be handled in the office. Within those 40 hours there is flexibility in the schedule, and we can work out start and end times that fit your life. This is a law firm, and law firms have pushes. When a court deadline or a closing is coming, it is all hands on deck, and overtime is required as necessary during those stretches. Overtime is paid in accordance with Oregon law. If you need a job that never runs past five, this is not the one; if you are the person who stays until the accounting ties out and takes the comp in a quiet week, you will fit in here. Pay is $25 to $32 per hour depending on experience, with a written review at 90 days. The position is hourly and non-exempt.

Benefits include paid time off that accrues at 0.0577 hours for every hour worked, including overtime hours, with no cap on accrual and rollover each year; a SIMPLE IRA with an employer match; a monthly contribution toward the health insurance plan you choose, beginning after 45 days; mileage reimbursement when work requires driving; and a company-issued cell phone.

How to apply

Apply through ZipRecruiter with your resume. I read every application myself and will respond to each one.

Jennifer Martin Attorney at Law (J. Martin, Esq. LLC) is an equal opportunity employer.

A sole practitioner in Lake Oswego, Jennifer Martin earned her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2018, graduating cum laude, and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington. Before law, she spent six years as a systems engineer at Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, and that background shows in how the office runs: analytical, procedural, and comfortable with new tools. She is licensed in Oregon, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, and the U.S. Tax Court, and in 2024 the Oregon State Bar’s Board of Governors appointed her Chair of the Free Legal Answers Committee.

Company Description

A sole practitioner in Lake Oswego, Jennifer Martin earned her J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School in 2018, graduating cum laude, and an LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington. Before law, she spent six years as a systems engineer at Insitu, a Boeing subsidiary, and that background shows in how the office runs: analytical, procedural, and comfortable with new tools. She is licensed in Oregon, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, and the U.S. Tax Court, and in 2024 the Oregon State Bar’s Board of Governors appointed her Chair of the Free Legal Answers Committee.