Scaling Excellence – Building the Elite Conveyancing Network

Since our launch of the Elite Conveyancing Network four years ago, our aim has always simply been to ‘be the best’ over other providers.

Specifically, this means to consistently progress transactions quicker than any other providers, whilst at the same time allowing enough time for our lawyers to deliver the personable, human interaction that buyers and sellers rightly demand and deserve at these pivotal moments of their lives.

Within just a few months of trading we found that it was in fact relatively easy to challenge the industry leaders in terms of service delivery, not least because most of our competition are being pulled in an opposite direction by their shareholders with the focus being to make more money. However, as the business then started to scale, it became clear that our biggest challenge was going to be attracting and keeping motivated the very best lawyers.

Our criteria for selecting the right type of lawyer in the first instance is twofold; they must be qualified but still have a positive personality – a combination which is becoming increasingly more difficult to find within the conveyancing industry!

There are of course various ways to qualify as a conveyancing lawyer and each are equally credible for determining whether or not they have the required technical knowledge. The very best lawyers though will also possess an element of common sense to apply alongside their academic credentials. It is this common sense that allows a lawyer to determine the quickest and most sensible solution to legal issues in order to keep a transaction progressing at speed, as opposed to arguing a point of law for weeks at a time only for their own Machiavellian gain.

Keeping these lawyers motivated to deliver the ‘Elite’ service year after year is now also proving to be an equal challenge. Early on, we recognized the dangers of sharing our lawyers with other clients / providers and so we have always insisted upon them working exclusively for Elite, not only to negate any other distractions but also to iron out the inevitable peaks and troughs in service associated with inconsistent volumes. This has also allowed us to distance ourselves from other national conveyancing providers and their sometimes questionable business values. It was important for us to become the ‘panel for non-panel firms’ in order for us to attract the best talent, champion best practice and to dare our competition to compete based upon service alone.

The one thing that we didn’t anticipate however was the negative impact that comes with success. A lawyer of any worth will have ambition but the career path for a successful conveyancing lawyer can be limited. Success is usually rewarded by their employer through promotion into mid-management / partnership and / or by building a team around their star fee-earner in the hope of generating even more fees for the firm. The problem with both of these moves is that it takes the individual away from front line conveyancing and the very essence of what made them great in the first place is then lost or at best diluted and service levels almost always suffer as a result.

The key therefore to scaling quality is in keeping top lawyers on the front line and to do this you must recognize and reward the fact that they are becoming an extremely rare breed within the conveyancing market.

In 2018 we partnered with a like-minded, entrepreneurial law firm called Wilford Smith through which we have developed and launched the framework which rewards top conveyancers within the industry by allowing them to set up and practice as a self-employed Conveyancing Consultants. The Consultancy Agreements offer the opportunity for service-focused lawyers to earn considerably more, as compared with the traditional employed roles available, whilst at the same time juggling smaller and more manageable caseloads. The net result for Elite Conveyancing is a far superior service through a new breed of highly motivated and capable lawyers.

Dapinder Singh, MD of Wilford Smith, commented:

‘As a firm we decided a long time ago that we wanted to be recognized for the quality of our work and not the prices we charged. We had monitored the rise of Elite Conveyancing for several years, they share the same values as we do to protect, develop and reward our lawyers and so when we eventually spoke about this joint venture, it was an easy decision for us to make.’

Carl Brignell, MD of Elite Conveyancing, says:

‘We know that there is a huge demand for speed and quality in the conveyancing industry and so our biggest challenge was always going to be in scaling the business without compromising quality of service. Just as good conveyancing lawyers are rare so too are entrepreneurial law firms and so we know how lucky we are to have found Wilford Smith. We couldn’t have asked for a better, more like-minded firm to be working with.’ Adding ‘We live and die by the service our lawyers provide and so it’s only right that they are now given the opportunity to directly share in the success of the brand.’

Elite’s Conveyancing Consultants will work alongside its existing panel of law firms.

For further information about becoming a Conveyancing Consultant please contact Tricia Lonorgan, Operations Director, Elite Conveyancing, [email protected] or call 0203 8580241.

Kindly shared by Elite Conveyancing