International fee-share firm Excello Law is investing heavily in support for its lawyers, significantly expanding its business services teams. Headcount across finance, compliance, IT and admin has grown by 20%, bringing the total to 68 staff across the firm.
This investment supports the 45 additional consultant lawyers who joined Excello and its House of Brands teams in the past twelve months, bringing the firm’s total to 287 lawyers across the UK and internationally. The expansion is underpinned by a series of senior promotions and the appointment of Sarah James as Excello’s first Chief Financial Officer.
The growth ensures the firm maintains the standard of support it is known for as it scales, without compromising service to lawyers or clients.
Excello 360
At the heart of that support is Excello 360, the firm’s dedicated team providing day-to-day operational support to consultant lawyers across nine UK and three international offices. The team is currently rated excellent by 97% of Excello’s lawyers.
Excello 360 now has 14 members of staff, an increase of 30% in the team over the past year, alongside 7 paralegals across the firm.
Rebecca Lehec, who established Excello 360 when she joined the firm in 2012, has been promoted to Director of 360 Support & Business Services. Becky had led the development of the first comprehensive support service of its kind offered as an inclusive benefit within a consultancy law firm, and her new role reflects the team’s remit across both lawyer support and wider business services.
Within Excello 360, Sian Pace is appointed Business Services Manager and Alex McGrady-Johnston is promoted to Workflow Coordinator. Alexa Ashington joins as Office Coordinator in Chester.
Finance team grows 45% as Sarah James becomes CFO
Excello’s finance team has grown by 45% in the past year, supporting the appointment of Sarah James as the firm’s first Chief Financial Officer. Sarah joined Excello in 2019 as Financial Controller and has been with the firm through seven years of rapid growth. She now sits in Excello’s C-suite alongside founder and CEO George Bisnought and COO Jo Losty, with a focus on ensuring the firm’s financial infrastructure keeps pace with lawyer growth.
Laurna Whittaker, previously Financial Controller, succeeds Sarah as Finance Director. The finance team’s growth also includes new hires Tracey Slinger (Finance Manager) and Erika Blasko (Management Accountant), plus three new additions to the legal cashier team: Philip Clynch, Hanna McKirdy and Hayley Barker.
Compliance and HR keep pace with lawyer growth
The firm’s Compliance team has also expanded, with Shakeira Davies-Raby promoted to Compliance Officer, supporting Jessie Williams, Director of Compliance and Risk. Fatimah Khawaja has been promoted to HR Coordinator.
IT and technology
Excello’s IT team has doubled in size over the past year, with Cathy Kirby joining from Baskerville Drummond to lead the firm’s technology strategy.
Under Cathy, Excello has launched a growing catalogue of tools giving lawyers the freedom to choose what works for their own practice, including the legal AI workspace Legora, alongside bespoke technology spanning credit control, billing, referrals and operational ticketing. The investment has streamlined operations and enhanced the experience of both lawyers and clients.
Growth built around 45 new lawyers
The 20% growth in business services headcount reflects the 45 consultant lawyers who joined Excello and its House of Brands teams over the past year, a deliberate strategy to grow support in step with the firm’s lawyer numbers rather than after the fact.
The senior appointments sit alongside Harriet Reynolds (Marketing Director), Jessie Williams (Director of Compliance and Risk) and Rasneet Sohal (Director of Community and Wellbeing), reinforcing strong female representation at senior level within Excello.
Jo Losty, Excello Law COO, comments:
“We hold ourselves out as the leading firm in the market for our support offering, and our support is consistently rated excellent by the lawyers who rely on it. That standard only holds if we keep investing in it. That’s why we’ve put real resource into scaling our finance, compliance, IT and 360 teams well ahead of demand, not behind it.
Becky’s promotion recognises the team she built from scratch, one that lawyers consistently tell us is excellent. Sarah’s appointment as CFO gives us the financial leadership to plan that growth properly for the long term.
Congratulations to everyone moving into new roles at Excello.”
