A housing agent makes more in his commission from a housing transaction than a lawyer from his conveyancing fees for the same transaction.
Pray tell me, my learned breathen, what's the point of trying to make a living by being a conveyancing lawyer?

In many ways, lawyering in this era of the knowledge economy is very challenging. The access which lay persons has to knowledge means for lawyers a loss in a monopoly, and rocks assumptions, foundations and ground rules that we had never questioned. The news industry faces similar challenges from bloggers; as do production houses from Youtube. Things seem to be going topsy turvy.

Yet, in every crisis, there are opportunities. I see new issues of law which affect the everyday world eg Spam Control Act), new ways of doing things (eg Lawnet, Justice Online, case management and practice management systems to auotmate the mundane), marketing (Google Ads, internet marketing) and business models.

I think that one thing that needs to happen, and which has not, is a review of the business rules under which lawyers operate. Rules like touting, sharing of fees, contingency fees, need to be examined for lawyers to take advantage of the new paradigm. Otherwise, the current tension between playing by the rules and succeeding in business will continue, resulting in terrible scenarios like the entrapment debacle.

Even the granddaddy of all common law jurisdictions, UK, had made and continues to make changes to the ground rules. In the UK, lawyers can now share fees with non-lawyers within the framework of full disclosure to the client. Very sensible. The lay person's interest remains protected. SeeRule 9 of the UK Code of Conduct on Referrals of Business http://www.sra.org.uk/code-of-conduct/219.article

Changes such as this can only effected with open dialogue and debate, and an open mind where "this is how we used to do things" becomes only the starting point.

The party best placed to initiate all this would is the Law Society. But that again is only a starting point which would result in nought without the participation of the community.

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The trouble with Conveyancing practice is the public perception that the lawyer adds little to the process... and i believe that some conveyancing lawyers are so demoralised by the constant price undercutting, the banks' demands for discounted rates and the lack of respect shown by their clients that they begin to disbelieve in themselves! The conveyancing lawyer's Value-Add to the client is - trouble-free, ontime completions AND legal expertise on-hand for the tricky issues that do often crop up, whether at contract or at transfer of title stage. For the consumer, the property purchase is likely to be the most expensive investment he is making at this time - surely he would not want to entrust it to some salesman ("estate agent") or banking officer who has never filed a caveat in his life, let alone know what its for. So i say, take pride in your legal experience, your legal training AND your processes. Your challenge is to get your processes right, deliver on time, without hassle AND you will ALWAYS be needed. In Australia and the UK, where conveyancing has been opened up to non-legal providers, conveyancing lawyers still thrive; in different business forms perhaps(not a law practice) but they are far from a dying breed!