Platform law firm Excello Law has marked its US debut with the launch of an office in Santa Barbara.
The UK-founded firm has brought on litigator J Paul Gignac from Rimon to lead the new office, which it expects will act as a springboard for further US expansion.
“The US is important for our clients and we saw significant opportunities for the consultancy law firm model there,” Excello founder and CEO, George Bisnought, told GLP. “We were aware of big players in the market like FisherBroyles and Rimon operating a similar model and when we looked at where we would plant our flag, California was crying out to us, because of its focus on tech and innovation, its openness and the fact that there are other fee share law firm models there already.”
He added the firm was drawn by California’s status as one of the largest legal markets in the US, and that the Santa Barbara office would act as a platform for it to launch in other key markets like New York, Texas and Miami.
“The idea is that we become full service in the US and we’re already talking to lawyers for those opportunities,” Bisnought said. “It’s vital we find the right people. We interviewed a number of lawyers ahead of opening in Santa Barbara and were impressed by J Paul’s experience. He’s run his own firm in the past and had already been working in the consultancy model sector prior to joining us.”
Gignac founded his own practice in 2015 before joining Rimon two years ago and brings decades of experience across real estate, IP, entertainment, trusts and class actions. He and his team are currently working on a group claim on behalf of victims of the Eaton Canyon Fire that tore through Los Angeles in January.
Excello is among the larger of the UK fee-share law firms, in which consultant lawyers bill clients for work and the firm provides administrative support. Fees paid by the client are shared between the regulated firm, the lawyers that service the client and the lawyer that introduced the client.
Excello was one of the model’s earlier pioneers when Bisnought founded the firm in 2009. Since then it has grown into a full-service commercial and private client firm with 210 partners across nine UK offices, while the model has become better understood as a viable career option for lawyers wanting to set their own fees, choose their clients and work remotely.
Excello’s growth mirrors wider expansion of the fee share market in the UK, with the firm competing with larger rivals including Setfords, Taylor Rose and gunnercooke as well as Keystone.
Data from the Codex Edge Platform Firms Report 2024 showed Excello was the third-fastest growing platform firm in 2023, with a compound annual growth rate of 30%, though Bisnought said the firm was not chasing growth for its own sake.
“We’re looking to recruit the best and we turn away more people than we offer roles to because of the investment that we make in each of our lawyers,” Bisnought said.
“Many of our lawyers come from the Magic Circle and the Silver Circle. With us they earn a greater percentage of the fees that they generate than they would with a traditional law firm, so it’s self-rewarding in that respect. Also, there’s complete flexibility, with no central diktat as to where they work, who they can work with and the hours that they bill their clients.
“That means that they can have a frank conversation with their clients about the value that they’re bringing to their business, and spend more time understanding their needs.”
Bisnought said the firm often spoke with experienced lawyers at traditional firms who had been faced with losing longstanding clients over increases to their hourly rates that had been dictated by their firm.
Bisnought added: “On the client side, if you take a lawyer who’s been working for 15 years in a City law firm, they’ll be charging out at anywhere from £1,000 per hour upwards. We take that quality but we aren’t charging out at that rate because of our lower overheads and use of technology.”
Looking to the US, Bisnought said the firm had encountered the same dissatisfaction among lawyers there as it had in the UK.
“The beauty of it is that the market is maturing. When we started in 2009 the conversations we were having with lawyers were very different because they didn’t really understand the concept of working in this way, but people’s eyes have opened to the idea that they can work remotely and still do fantastic work for their clients.
“Law firms in the US and UK asking lawyers to go back to the office represents a great opportunity for firms like Excello. Now the questions focus on what makes us different from another fee-sharing firm, rather than how the model works.”
News of Excello’s US launch follows the firm marking its first international expansion, in Dubai, in January after forming a partnership with local practice Abdelaziz Al Blooshi Advocates & Legal Consultants (trading as ALB Mathew).
“There’s a can-do, innovative attitude in Dubai that was attractive,” Bisnought said. “It’s bringing in people from all over the globe, and like in the US we saw an opportunity. There are lots of lawyers who aren’t happy, and we can offer them an alternative.
“We explored the free zones and realised quickly that wouldn’t offer the right solution. It wouldn’t have been right for our lawyers or clients as we would have invariably been offering English law as a result, so that didn’t offer us a great deal more than what we already have in the UK, just greater overheads.
“We looked into the Dubai International Financial Centre and decided that working with a local firm was the best route for us. ALB Mathew, which like us is primarily a corporate and commercial law firm, is entrepreneurial, ambitious and as a ready-made law firm gives us that platform straight off the bat.”
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