The conveyancing timebombs are slowly exploding all around. 3 suspensions for touting, and another large sum of money missing from client's account. Things are going very wrong in the land of the conveyancers, even though property transactions are at an all time high..

I have expressed my views on touting in earlier posts. In short, while I think that the touting rules are antiquated; as long as they are still on the books, as lawyers, we have to play by the rules, and those that flaunt the rules will need to pay the price.

As for Sadique Marican and ZM Amin, the firm had grown incredibly fast, and was notorious for being incredibly overstretched. With the amount of late interests and compensations for mistakes the firm was paying off, it is forseeable that te 6M may have been used for mistake cover ups and compensation payments rather than pure personal enrichment.

Growing too fast, over reliance on conveyancing staff to carry out the work with inadequate supervision, poor business planning, no systems for the other partners to monitor the accounts or calendar dates, that scenario is unfortunately, all too familiar in many "successful" conveyancing firms.

I draw on my experiencers as an ex-conveyancer and legal technologist to venture forth some simple but concrete insights:

1. With today's property boom, the magic in conveyancing is not in being able to get the work but the ability to deliver it.

2. The firms in the Hub that produce consistently good work and keep up their standards have some key thing in common:

a. Good staff morale and teamwork;
b. Automation of document production;
c. Shared calendars
d. Partners that are experienced conveyancers and who could if push came to shove, be quite capable of rolling up their sleeves and handling a whole file on their own (perhaps minus the Stars E-Lodgment bits)

All common sense. How you get there is where the trade secret lies. The backroom is all important. Get that running as smoothly as the perculator in the waiting lounge, and you have a good chance of not being one of the exploding bombs.

I hope that the recent incidents will galvanize the conveyancing community to take a long hard look at all that is wrong, and to work together to put dignity and pride back into the profession.

Let's stop the disgraceful entrapment and the bad blood; let's review the rules; and let's invest in the backrooms and proper staff empowerment.

Serena Lim
Bizibody Technology

You see what happens when the consumer pays peanuts for their conveyancing? They get monkey work. Conveyancing lawyers today make so little money per file, how can they afford to spend qaulity time with the client? Address the problem at the root - the fall of conveyancing standards (missed deadlines, lousy or non-existent client care, documents not in order) can be placed solely and squarely on the consumer. We need to EDUCATE THE CONSUMER. If they pay $600 and expect personal attention on their file, tell them to GET REAL and GET LOST. I spend more than that on my domestic helper!

Sorry. I am writing because this martyred "I am the victim, blame the consumer" attitude is damaging and creates a vicious cycle. Firstly, you always have a choice whether to accept the client or not; Secondly, your statement is an exaggeration. I believe the market rate for a purchase transaction is in the region of $2,000 (NOT $600 as you claim). Whatever it is you charge, the fact is there are conveyancing practices that deliver on time, without fuss AND without grief to their clients and still do NOT charge a premium for this service. This is where the challenge lies - how to deliver value even where the margins are low.

Now that the conveyancing market is hot again and the volume of transactions have risen sharply, it means that we ALL have an opportunity to make money from conveyancing again. I welcome that. Without downplaying the difficulties of staff shortage, managing volume and exacting deadlines; I think that responding to the challenges described by slim in a constructive way will serve you better than complaining. If you want to stay in the game, consider rolling up your sleeves and getting down to the dirty. My staff use conveyancing templates (mail merge) and shared calendars to help them. I stay back late myself to give them moral support. I see all my conveyancing clients at least once in the transaction, just so that they are assured there really is a lawyer who is overseeing their file. I am not saying that I run the best conveyancing practice in town, but I am convinced that we need to reclaim our professional reputation in the eyes of the public and a conveyancing lawyer is a lawyer still.