Jo Losty
Chief Operating Officer at Excello Law
The COO of the pioneering fee-share practice Excello Law updates The Brief on the firm’s recent international expansion, the growth of its “House of Brands” offering and how its business model is positioning it to thrive in a volatile world.
When we last spoke to Excello Law, in June 2024, the fee-share platform firm had nine offices around England and 200 senior lawyers working either as consultants or employees.
The intervening period has, as Chief Operating Officer Jo Losty tells The Brief, been “a busy year” for the firm, during which it has opened offices in Belfast, California and Dubai, and increased its headcount to 270 lawyers. Two hundred and sixteen of those lawyers are partners, 49 per cent of whom are women.
The firm recently posted turnover of £30.5 million for the year ending 30 June 2025. This represented an increase of 26.6 per cent on the previous year, and placed Excello solidly in The Lawyer’s Top 200 UK law firms.
Stateside synergies
Losty describes the move into the US market as “an obvious step”, pointing out that the fee-share consultancy model “is already in existence there so there’s an understanding of how it works.”
However, she says, “We felt we had something different to bring to that offering in the US, and obviously there are lots of opportunities over there, with the scale of the market and the different legal centres across the country.
We’re looking for lawyers who share our commitment to quality – really strong leading legal practitioners who can be strong advocates and ambassadors.
“There is also a natural synergy with some of the work we are doing in the UK, so it offers good collaboration opportunities for our existing cohort of lawyers as well.”
Excello currently has a litigation team based in Santa Barbara, California, and is actively looking to expand its team there and beyond. California has the second-largest number of lawyers of any US State, which was a major factor in its selection as the location for the firm’s first US office.
Losty explains, “Our focus in terms of growth, in any of our jurisdictions, is finding lawyers who have the depth of experience, the following and the entrepreneurial mindset to ensure their practice will transition well into our model.
“We’re looking for lawyers who share our commitment to quality – really strong leading legal practitioners who can be strong advocates and ambassadors in those markets for what we want to do as a firm.”
UAE partnership
Dubai, meanwhile, is “a fast-growing market: a very dynamic, exciting space to be from a business, and consequently legal, perspective.”
There is, she continues, like California, “lots of synergy with work we’re already doing over here in England.”
Excello’s Dubai operation has been launched in partnership with the existing UAE firm ALB Mathew. “This association means we already have lawyers on the ground,” Losty explains.
“It’s going really well and the early signs are very positive that we’ll be bringing on more lawyers there.”
Courting NI’s entrepreneurial lawyers
Closer to home, the firm has also expanded into Belfast. “We felt that was an interesting opportunity,” she says.
There is some really interesting work in Belfast and some very entrepreneurial lawyers who are showing an interest in the opportunities this model can offer them.
“The fee-share model is still relatively new there, but I think lawyers at law firms in Northern Ireland face the same challenges they would anywhere in the UK, and that will drive the migration to the fee share model. So, again, we felt that was a good opportunity for us to grow.
“There is some really interesting work in Belfast and some very entrepreneurial lawyers who are showing an interest in the opportunities this model can offer them.”
In future, Losty continues, the firm is looking at the Republic of Ireland market, using the Belfast base as its springboard.
Growing the House of Brands
While its international expansion has attracted the headlines, Losty says the firm’s established operations have also been performing “really, really well, and we are still attracting lawyers who want to join our fee-share consultancy model.”
For many, the key draw was Excello’s variety of entry options. In particular, the firm’s “House of Brands” offering has gained significant traction over the past 12 months.
This model provides central services and infrastructure to boutique practices that are able to deliver legal services under their own brand names, with the central Excello team taking care of essential services including insurance, compliance and administration. Of the 14 brands now part of the model, eight were launched in 2025.
Practices operating under the House of Brands include specialists in shipping, superyachts and intellectual property. The most recent new joiners, Three Points Law, founded their practice following a departure from Mishcon de Reya and will focus on technology, commercial and sports law.
Supporting and driving growth
Losty joined Excello Law in 2009 as a commercial litigator, having previously worked at firms including Norton Rose, Halliwells and The Woodbridge Partnership, before setting up her own practice in the mid-2000s. For the last decade, though, she has stepped back from practice to focus on leading the operational side of the firm and supporting its growth.
Recruitment remains our core growth strategy, appealing to lawyers who want to make the move into consultancy, but what is equally important is to make sure we can meet their needs operationally.
The support team at Excello Law now numbers around 100 employees, including paralegals, administration, secretarial, IT, compliance and marketing staff.
Losty says, “Initially I was heavily involved in speaking to lawyers and bringing them into the firm but, as the years have gone by, I’ve become more involved in the operational side of the business as well.
“Recruitment remains our core growth strategy, appealing to lawyers who want to make the move into consultancy, but what is equally important is to make sure we can meet their needs operationally when they join us, to support their successful transition to fee-share.
“I work with our central team to ensure our support service levels are meeting our lawyers’ needs. This includes ensuring they have the opportunities to meet each other, to network and build relationships internally so they can benefit from our thriving referral culture.”
Agility and caution
Looking to the future, Losty says that after the past “very busy” 12 months, the firm’s immediate focus will be on bedding in its operations in its new jurisdictions as well as continuing to grow its fee share practice in England and Wales.
Going forward, as the world continues to turn and change, the agility and flexibility of our model will provide a sound foundation for us.
Despite an uncertain economic and political climate, nationally and globally, she says the firm has the necessary foundations to thrive, whatever the external situation.
“George Bisnought launched Excello Law in 2009, at the start of the recession,” she says. “Not only that, but he launched a practice that, at the time, was completely different from anything else in the market.
“So, I think the fact we have continued to grow and achieve what we have over the past 16 years is testament to the agility of the model we’re working with. It has withstood the challenges of financial crises, the pandemic and various political upheavals
“That gives us some confidence that, going forward, as the world continues to turn and change, the agility and flexibility of our model will provide a sound foundation for us. Of course, though, we are always looking to the future to make sure we keep ahead and ensure that what we’re offering to lawyers in the marketplace is competitive and meets their needs.”
This is not, though, based on a gung-ho, recruit-first-ask-questions-later, approach. Losty explains, “We are very cautious, steady and steadfast in our recruitment.
“We are very keen to ensure that, when we bring lawyers in, they are the right fit for us and we are the right fit for them. We want this to be a long-lasting, enduring partnership between the lawyer and ourselves.
“I think that is really important in terms of managing risk and ensuring we have a steady ship whatever the future might hold.”
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