Lawyer story: Rhian Radia

Rhian Radia is an Employment lawyer with a background in City law firms. She has more than 28 years’ experience advising companies and senior individuals.

Before joining Excello I’d worked for a number of law firms, in each case starting a team from scratch. I enjoyed starting from a blank canvas but after a decade of doing so I thought, why am I not working for myself? I knew I could find clients and that I could manage a team. So the next logical step was to go out and do it for myself.

The fee-share model seemed the best option, and while there are a lot of firms now operating in the space, something about Excello really stood out for me. It’s the firm’s culture that’s so important to me.

Work on your terms

I love the fact that there are offices across the UK, I’ve worked in London since 2002 but I’m Welsh originally and studied in Liverpool. I love the fact that I can go north or to the Midlands, or work anywhere across the country for Excello. We also have international offices too.

It’s great to have meeting space for clients, and also somewhere so that if I decide when I wake up in the morning that I’d like to be in the office today, I can do that. It’s not a case of being required to be at a desk at 9am, it’s up to me, and being able to work for yourself is one of the best parts of the move to Excello.

The personalities of the people I’m working with matter more than anything. I have always trusted my instincts when it comes to the people at firms, and what struck me instantly was how happy the Excello lawyers were. People are going about with smiles on their faces and that just lifts everyone’s mood, that and the absence of office politics.

As an employment lawyer I’m looking at culture and healthy workplaces day in, day out. I’ve seen Excello lives what they say. From the lawyers to the paralegals and the support teams, everyone’s creating an environment they want to work in and I feel very grateful for that.

The ease of getting started

In the early days especially, having the 360 Team was so invaluable. As I was learning all the new systems they were so supportive and worked to open files so quickly, much more so than when I’ve worked at traditional firms.

Everyone is very commercially-minded and moves fast. The legal cashiers are brilliant and if I’ve got a query on a bill they come back to me immediately. I’ve had all the support I’ve needed from Marketing and they’ve been great.

I have now taken on my own personal assistant, not due to any issues with the Excello team but because I have an especially high turnover of clients in my line of work. That’s a great example of what I mean by support that empowers rather than support that controls. Excello were so supportive and recognise some lawyers might need more help, they didn’t question why I needed it, they just made it happen instantly. That made my life a lot easier.

It surprised me when I first started just how smooth the induction was. Getting set up with all the technology was seamless and I was up and running. I’d spent a decade wondering if I’d be able to do this and find clients, and it’s been a relief that’s all gone so smoothly.

Part of a team

I was very conscious when I first joined that I couldn’t be fully reliant on referrals from other lawyers throughout my career. But I’d hoped when I joined that I’d be able to collaborate with other excellent lawyers and that has now happened.

If for example I’m working on a shareholder dispute, I can handle the employment side of things but I’ll also need a corporate and commercial lawyer, and I have a great fellow Excello partner who can work on that. Plus, amongst us employment lawyers I love that we all support each other and bounce ideas off one another. Then if you’re going on holiday or you just need some support on your caseload, there’s somebody there for you. That’s so different to when you’re in private practice and you feel like competitors for the same work. Here, a client win for one of us is genuinely a win for all of us.

The Excello difference probably comes down to the personality of the lawyers who’ve chosen to leave big firms and want to do things differently. Excello only bring on board senior lawyers they know will fit the firm, people who’ve chosen to leave big firm politics behind, so you know from day one you’re surrounded by people who actually want to be good at this. So they’re coming at everything with an open mindset and they’re more comfortable in their own skin.

There’s also an entrepreneurial streak among our lawyers that you don’t always see elsewhere. At big firms the work might come from institutional clients, but at Excello we all know something about bringing in business. You get a bit of buzz out of that.

The firm’s management, George and Jo, have always been very supportive of me. I know if I’ve got a question, I can email George and Jo directly and they’ll always come straight back to me. Not a policy, just how they are. You know that they really know their way around the legal world and it’s fantastic to have them available to talk through ideas and get their perspective.

Making the jump

Before starting at Excello, I had conversations with other fee share firms but none of those felt quite right. I appreciated the social aspect at Excello, the events they hold, and the quality of the other lawyers here. There’s something unique about the atmosphere.

It’s also important that the conversations when you’re starting aren’t just about fees, you talk about what it takes to make sure you’ll be happy here. It speaks volumes that people don’t tend to leave Excello. The market might be changing a lot, but I’m very happy where I am.

If you’re thinking about making the switch to a fee-share, I’d say this: as lawyers we tend to overthink things. Believe in yourself and go for it. I remember meeting some of the Excello lawyers in the early days who’d been doing this for five or six years and thinking, that will be me soon enough. They told me not to overthink and they were right. Just keep at it!