Risks and rewards
Technology may not be the answer to all the problems conveyancers face but it is essential to improving the client experience and making life easier for practitioners argues Chartered Legal Executive Yanthe Richardson
Conveyancers, we have a problem.
And the problem is, we can't agree on what the problem is!
Does the entire conveyancing process need an overhaul? Have we lost too many of our experienced colleagues to burnout? Are we all charging too little to carry out the due diligence on what is often the biggest investment our clients will ever make? Do clients in this Amazon Prime era have unrealistic expectations?
Perhaps it is a combination of all of the above and the question we need to ask ourselves is whether technology can help us to solve at least some of these issues.
My introduction to working more closely with CILEX was back in 2018 when I responded to an advert for a Specialist Reference Group advisor specifically to deal with the portfolio of 'technology and the role it can play in improving the home-buying and selling process'. You might think that means my opinion on this is a foregone conclusion. But maybe it isn't.
Do I think technology is essential? Yes. Do I think it solves everything? No.
Consumer demand
Deploying technology in a consumer-driven area of law is essential. I am baffled when I receive a physical letter which could have been an e-mail, so why should my clients feel any different? Consumers will choose firms that offer a technology-driven experience but, importantly, they should be educated to know that technology will not replace experience. As such, they take a risk if they instruct a practice which is driven only by technology and not also by legal experience and expertise.
“Less manual 'process' and more actual legal work means more reward and more challenges to entice newcomers to our specialism”
Not just that, but to have happy clients, we need happy conveyancers and this is where technology can make a real difference to your people-based business. Less manual 'process' and more actual legal work means more reward and more challenges to entice newcomers to our specialism.
Property law is not as straightforward as general opinion might believe it to be. Technology can improve the speed of identifying our clients, of sourcing data, of communicating safely with our clients and other professionals, of accessing lender clients' information and of perfecting registration – the list goes on. My own favourite is placing more security on the signature of a document via qualified electronic signatures, a move I understand indemnity insurers also feel would lower a lot of risk.
But property law can also be complex, so while digitisation allows us to automate the aspects that don't need our expertise, increase productivity and focus on the legal elements of the work, it cannot entirely replace experience. Neither can it replace emotional intelligence and a good ability to negotiate, which all too often can be the magic touch that holds a chain together.
Embracing change
There are risks and we need to be alive to them, particularly in making this digitisation as secure as possible to avoid an increase in fraud. The bigger risk, however, would be to ignore the technology that is being used around us and assume that it is not essential to our part of the industry. Yes, the stakes are high, but fraudsters have successfully targeted firms who use very little technology and with the right safeguards in place, these risks can be mitigated.
HM Land Registry is on board, with its newly published business plan and strategy for 2022-25 including a pledge to promote "a secure and inclusive digital system of conveyancing". In showing its intention to move forward in this way, while there will be balanced decisions to make around complying with regulation and ensuring our systems are safe, the Land Registry is ensuring we all know it is not legality that will prevent us from embracing these changes as a sector.
What might prevent it is the cost, particularly to smaller practices, which providers and policy makers should be alive to.
So, while I caution against introducing technology as a gimmick, used in the right way, to produce the right efficiencies, it can make a real difference to the success of your practice.
I do not believe the process is broken, but the way we go about it could be so much better and implementing technology in the right way will see the attraction of future talent, allow us to see greater efficiencies on our time (and therefore profit) and speed up some of our process.
In a people-focused business, technology is ironically essential in making lives easier, both ours and our clients. These changes are coming, whether all facets of our industry want to embrace them or not. I often say that, for change to happen in the legal sector, it needs to be mandated by legislation or by lenders, and isn't that sad? Let's not accept the 'as it is' as the 'how it will always be' and instead embrace the change, see the benefits for our clients, and reap the rewards.
Yanthe Richardson is a non-executive director on CILEX's Professional Board and Chartered Legal Executive and managing associate at Foot Anstey LLP
