Learning from digital-first law firms

What are the early adopters and digital leaders in SME legal doing to improve their onboarding journeys? Bronwyn Townsend, senior marketing manager at InfoTrack, lays out some of the winning characteristics.

Only 5% of law firms scored above 80% when assessed for their digital maturity in the conveyancing process according to the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index. These firms are the trailblazers, the pioneers, the leaders.

Early adopters are essential for the evolution of an industry. They are those leading the way on the implementation of new systems and keeping the needle moving. This remains true with the conveyancing sector too. Law firms that are adopting digital tools are reaping the rewards – time savings, productivity, and better risk mitigation.

The solutions these leading firms are adopting span the entire conveyancing process from new business management and client onboarding to post-completion. They’re the firms that scored higher than 80% when the industry average is just 43%. These are the firms the rest of the industry will watch and learn from.

What are the key takeaways we can glean from these digital adoption leaders? Based on the Digital Conveyancing Maturity Index, here are the three most important discoveries from the research.

1. Case management system integration is pivotal. To maximise the currently available technology, law firms must integrate their service suppliers with their case management system. Two-way integration – the kind that pushes and pulls data between various digital tools – creates a single source of truth, saves time, and mitigates many risks associated with the rekeying of data.
2. Automation is key. The pre-completion process is the least mature across the board when it comes to the adoption of digitalisation by conveyancers, with an average score of 30%. It’s also the largest and most labour-intensive part of the process. Automation of administrative tasks and pre-population can all have a major impact on law firm productivity. Automation is also saving these digitally savvy firms hours on manually updating their clients. By using digital tools to automate the process before clients chase, they’re saving hours every week.
3. eSignatures are a quick win. 78% of firms are already using eSignatures, though not evenly across the entire process. For the firms already using eSignatures for part of the process, ensure you’re using them for Land Registry and mortgage deeds, not just onboarding. If you’re not using them at all, eSignatures are one of the quickest ways to incorporate digitisation into your conveyancing process – and you’ll see the rewards swiftly.

These firms are showing us all that end-to-end digital conveyancing is a reality and it’s available to law firms now. So, why not join them?