Digital Opportunities in Conveyancing

A recent study from the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index found that the average digital maturity of law firms in England and Wales was 43%. Furthermore only 5% of law firms scored higher than 80%. This will perhaps come as a shock too many considering the pandemic rapidly increased digital adoption over the past three years.

Historically, law firms have often been cautious when it comes to implementing technology into their workflow. Despite the average digital maturity of law firms being only 43%, many law firms have implemented a digital-first approach and many of them are seeing the benefits that implementing this technology brings in areas such as productivity, time-saving and risk mitigation. These digital solutions are being implemented across the entire conveyancing process. The Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index suggests that there are many law firms that are yet to take the step to reap the benefits from implementing digital solutions.

Below are a few of the tech opportunities that will have the largest impact on law firms.

Case management system (CMS)

Implementing a CMS enables employees to find all the information about all the firm’s cases in one single database. This makes finding and storing information easier and more efficient.

Automation

Pre-completion is the area where law firms were the least mature with an average score of 30%. However, it is also the largest and most labour intensive area of the conveyancing process so it is the area with the largest opportunity for digitisation. Automation can save firms hours on a weekly basis as administrative tasks such as collation of documents, analysis of search data and preparation of client friendly reports can all be automated.

E-signatures

Whilst the majority of firms (78%) are already using E-signatures they are not using them consistently throughout the entire conveyancing process. For those firms looking for a quick win by implementing a digital solution. E-signatures are one of the easier and quickest solutions to adopt.

How can we help?

Hawsons is one of the few accountancy practices with a dedicated team of solicitor accountants specialising in the needs of solicitors and legal professionals.

We act for a large number of law firms across all three of our offices and offer a wide range of services which are tailored to meet their individual needs. Our legal client base consists of a multitude of firms of varying structure and size, from sole traders to limited companies and LLPs with corporate members.

Our understanding of the unique issues that many in the sector are facing, combined with our technical experience, allows our solicitor specialists to provide you with proactive, commercial and informed accountancy and tax advice.