Support for Your Conveyancing Team
We enable you to get more transactions through, keep clients and introducers happy and win more work across the firm, without burning your people out.
Is your conveyancing team stretched to the limit while transactions still take months to exchange? Are good people leaving, or telling you they can't keep this up? Does the phone ring all day with clients and agents asking for updates?
Across England and Wales there are fewer residential conveyancers than five years ago and transactions are taking longer. Recruiting your way out is hard. The capacity most firms need is already there, tied up in chasing, incomplete information and work that gets done twice.
We help private client law firms release that capacity. We listen to your team, your clients and the estate agents and other introducers who send you work. We look at how your transactions actually run. Then we work with you on the changes that make the biggest difference.
Why it matters to the whole firm
In a firm with a wide range of private client work, conveyancing is often the busiest department and the one under most strain. It's also where many clients first meet the firm. A buyer or seller is often also a wills, LPA, probate or family client. A property team that's firefighting has no time to introduce them to colleagues, so the firm loses work it should have kept.
Get conveyancing running well and the benefit reaches every private client department.
What the firm gets
- More transactions through per conveyancer, without recruiting.
- Fewer calls and less chasing, with clients and agents kept informed before they ask.
- A team that stays, because the day is manageable and management backs them.
- Compliance built into the way matters run, done once at the right stage.
- A process ready for the government's home buying reforms.
- More clients introduced to the firm's other private client services.
- Stronger relationships with the estate agents, brokers and other introducers who send you work.
Two views of the same problem
Management usually sees a recruitment problem, thin margins and a rising compliance burden. Conveyancers describe constant interruptions, poor information at the start of a matter, chasing, being shouted at and systems that don't help. Both are right. The gap between the two views is usually where the answer lies. We listen to both in confidence. We also hear from your clients, estate agents and the other introducers who send you work, as they see the firm from outside.
Our approach
🔍 Understand
- Listen to the team. Conversations in confidence with conveyancers, support staff and the departments that rely on them.
- Listen to clients and the people who send you work. A sample of clients, plus estate agents, mortgage brokers, financial advisers and other introducers across your sources of work, on what it's like to deal with your firm and what would bring them back.
- Look at the matters. Your own case management data on how matters flow, where they stall and where the time goes.
- Report back to management. A short paper setting out what's holding the team back, the gap between how management and the team see it and the priorities.
🛠️ Improve
- Get the start of the matter right. Complete information at instruction, the right expectations with clients from day one and a clear proposal that explains what they're paying for.
- Keep people informed. Agreed updates for clients, agents and the other side, phone standards the whole team works to and clear support from management when clients overstep.
- Build compliance into the workflow. Source of funds, AML checks, the current TA6 and TA7 forms and CQS requirements set up in your case management system and templates.
- Make the systems fit. Case management configured to how the team works and AI tools introduced where they help.
🔗 Extend
- Take what works to the other departments. Onboarding, ID and AML checks, update standards and case management workflows are shared across private client work, so conveyancing becomes the pilot for the firm.
- Open up routes across departments. Simple ways for the property team to introduce clients to wills, LPAs, probate and family colleagues and back again.
- Prepare for reform. What upfront sales packs, earlier binding agreements, digital ID and property logbooks will mean for your process.
How we work with you
Most firms start with the diagnostic: the listening, the look at your matters and the report to management. It's a fixed price and leaves you with a clear picture and priorities whether or not you take the work further with us. From there we can support the changes in full, work alongside your own people on the priorities you choose or run a workshop with the team on the findings. We offer fixed prices for defined stages, day rates for flexible support or a mix of both.
Who you will work with
Allan Carton leads the work with management and the team. A qualified solicitor with an MBA, he has advised law firms on business development and client relationships since 1990 and on technology since 1992.
Frank Manning leads on case management configuration, systems and security where the work calls for it.
Related services
- Conveyancing Market Strategy. Understanding your local market and where your property team should grow.
- Conveyancing Client Proposals. Converting more enquiries with clear proposals and a smooth start for every client.
- Client Listening & Relationships. Hearing from clients and introducers across the whole firm.
- Practice and Case Management System Selection. When the systems themselves are holding the team back.
Your next step
Talk to us about where your property team is under pressure. There's no obligation and the first conversation often brings out useful insights.
Or contact Allan Carton directly:
Email: acarton@cartonconsultants.com
Phone: 07779 653105
Frequently asked questions
Q: We're not a specialist conveyancing firm. Is this for us?
A: Yes. It's designed for firms where conveyancing sits alongside wills, probate, family and other private client work and where the property team's pressures affect the whole firm.
Q: Isn't the answer just to recruit more conveyancers?
A: Recruiting is hard and slow. Most firms find real capacity in reducing chasing, rework and interruptions first, which also makes the firm a better place for the people you do recruit.
Q: Will our conveyancers have time to take part?
A: The listening is short conversations at times that suit the team. Most conveyancers welcome the chance to say what gets in their way.
Q: Will you speak to our estate agents and other introducers?
A: Yes, with your agreement. They send you much of your work and see how quickly you respond and how well you keep everyone informed. What they tell us often explains why referrals rise or fall.
Q: Do you treat what people tell you as confidential?
A: Yes. We report themes to management and never attribute comments to individuals.
Q: Do we need new technology?
A: Often not. Many firms use only part of what their case management system can do. Where the system is the problem, we'll say so and can help you choose a replacement.
Q: How does this help with the home buying reforms?
A: The reforms bring upfront information, earlier binding agreements and more digital ID and data sharing. A process that already gets complete information at the start of a matter is well placed for them.
Q: Can you help with compliance?
A: We help you build AML, source of funds, TA6 and TA7 and CQS requirements into the way matters run. We don't give legal or regulatory advice, which stays with your own compliance team.
Q: Where do you work?
A: In this area of our work, primarily with law firms in England & Wales, in person and online.