Today's Conveyancer Podcast

Host David Opie is joined by Landmark Estate Agency Services MD Ben Robinson, and Ochresoft MD Rob Gurney for this short review of the latest Property Trends Report, covering January to March 2024.  Covering listings, sold-subject-to-contract, search ordering and completions, the data provides insight into the current market conditions, and provides an indicator for what we might expect in the com...

What are digital property logbooks, and why are they important to the future of property transactions? To answer these questions, and more, the Today's Conveyancer podcast welcomes on Nigel Walley; founder and CEO of property logbook company Chimni, and Chair of the Residential Logbook Association.  Nigel explains what the key differences between logbooks and Google Docs or Dropbox, for examp...

Compliance business boss Tim Barnett joins the latest Today's Conveyancer Podcast to discuss the work being done to improve the process, and experience for consumers, of anti-money laundering, customer due diligence and know your client verification. As CEO of ID and AML verification business Credas, Tim is well aware of the challenges this presents to firms and suppliers and reminds us about...

Chief Revenue Officer at Cashroom Alex Holt joins Today's Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie to discuss his Cashroom and the development of the business over the last 10 years. Cashroom offer outsourced finance functions for law firms across the UK; and has grown as a number of factors have come together to place pressure on law firm finance functions.  Alex points to a reduction in the numb...

The Today's Conveyancer podcast talks to Chief Operating Officer at environmental data and search provider Groundsure, Malcolm Smith. After nearly 20 years in the sector Malcolm is known to many and in a refreshingly honest discussion, he shares his thoughts on current market conditions, the up front information debate, and normalising climate change advice for home movers. Malcolm provides a...

This special edition of the Today's Conveyancer Podcast is guest hosted by one of the founders of National Conveyancing Week Rob Hailstone. Rob speaks with HM Land Registry's Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Customer and Strategy  Mike Harlow.  Rob questions Mike about progress on the registrations backlogs, consistency of response from HMLR,  lender updates, some of the practicali...

The Today's Conveyancer podcast welcome Dan Warburton on to discuss the topic of leadership. Dan works with law firms leaders and partners to elevate their leadership skills to enable them empower staff to be more efficient and effective.  Dan describes his work as "the skill of profitable delegation;" to create leaders who can deliver high levels of performance across their team. ...

The latest Today's Conveyancer podcast explores the perennial question on the minds and lips of most businesses... what do clients really want? A report from Law Firm Marketing Club does just that. Now in it's 4th year, "What Clients Want" is an extensive piece of research which asks consumers of legal services what they want from their law firm; from first introduction through...

Ruth Beeton co founder of Home Sale Pack join the Today's Conveyancer podcast to discuss the launch of the business which aims to collect more property information and data up front in the course of a property transaction in order to create greater speed and certainty. Ruth, from North East firm HS Conveyancing Ltd, has been practicing for over 20 years and decries the current state of the co...

Hamza Hafesji, Group Product Manager at Advanced Legal, joins the latest Today's Conveyancer podcast to discuss the importance of implementing a culture of performance management in a business.  For years the only time most employees receive any sort of constructive feedback has been in an annual appraisal. For Hamza, something has to fundamentally change and feedback must be much more of an...

Today's Conveyancer podcast host David Opie is joined by former-conveyancer Chris Scantlebury, the founder and director at conveyancing platform ProConvey.  Chris explains how he has moved on from front line conveyancing to develop ProConvey; an digital conveyancing tool that helps conveyancers and estate agents better collaborate. Having spent 10 years "down the mines" at the coal...

Kate Burt joins this latest episode of the Today's Conveyancer podcast. Kate is a solicitor and compliance consultant, running specialist consultancy Hive Risk. The topic of discussion is compliance and the way external organisations can support firms, before moving on to specifically talk about complaints handling.  As Kate says, compliance is not just the SRA handbook. It touches on a myria...

The Today's Conveyancer podcast returns for it's third series with our first episode of 2024. And we're launching with a bang with Sebastian Haller, Deputy Director of Anti-Money Laundering at the Council for Licensed Conveyancers sharing the regulator's views on the challenges conveyancers and property lawyers face when it comes to anti-money laundering (AML) Sebastian shares...

In the final Today's Conveyancer podcast of 2023 host David Opie discusses the challenges of running a law firm in 2023 with Ellisons Managing Partner Guy Longhurst. Ellisons are a full service firm with 5 offices and 275 staff across Suffolk and Essex, putting them in the top 200 bracket of firms in England and Wales.  in this candid discussion Guy shares his experience of being with the fir...

There is an opportunity for a change in the way conveyancers offer their services as a result of the introduction of the Material Information Guidance, suggests Head of the National Trading Standards Estate and Lettings Agents Team (NTSELAT), James Munro.  Speaking to podcast host David Opie, Munro says there is a "great opportunity for the conveyancing profession to get involved in a transac...

Conveyancing nirvana might be the perfect contract pack says Rob Gurney, Managing Director of Ochresoft in the latest Today's Conveyancer podcast. Rob discusses how the desire for speed has created a rod for our own backs when it comes to transaction timelines. There is this onus on getting the contract out to the other side as quickly as possible, without all the information a conveyancer kn...

Steven Hill, Managing Director at Case Management System provider Denovo BI joins Today's Conveyancer Podcast host David Opie to discuss technology, case management, and the challenge of working across Scottish and English jurisdictions. Steven talks about his history with the business  over 18 years and his recent promotion to the role of Managing Director. Denovo BI started out life as an a...

This week the Today's Conveyancer Podcast welcomes Rachel Griffiths Head of External Operations and Panel Management at SDL Surveyors. SDL Surveyors are one of the largest independent providers of mortgage valuations with over 200,000 cases per year. They also provide private home surveys directly on behalf of consumers and the topic of discussion in this latest podcast the perennial issue of...

John Reynolds, Chief Operating Officer at Coadjute joins host David Opie on the latest Today's Conveyancer podcast to discuss the future of the conveyancing market, and what "digitisation" means to Coadjute. John identifies 5 elements to a digital property market Digital identity Digital signature Digital form of the title Digital form of the contract Digital exchange We are moving...

The Today's Conveyancer Podcast welcomes Adrian Jaggard, a Director of Taylor Rose MW and AIIC Holdings, the parent of Taylor Rose MW, FDR Law and Sloth Move, amongst other investments in legal services and technology.  The discussion centres on the growth of their consultant model of employment which, since launching in 2014, has grown to become one of the largest employers of consultant law...

In this shortened special edition of the Today's Conveyancer podcast host David Opie is joined by Ochresoft MD Rob Gurney and Landmark Estate Agency Services MD Ben Robinson to discuss the latest Landmark Property Trends Report released recently.  The quarterly report looks at 4 key stats drawn from a number of sources including HMLR and Landmark's own data, to consider the current state...

Enquiries are the topic of discussion for this latest Today's Conveyancer Podcast. The bane of most conveyancer's existence, there has been much discussion about the volume, and what might be considered triviality, of enquiries raised on property transitions.  To discuss the issue host David Opie is joined by Peter Ambrose, CEO of The Partnership, a conveyancing firm based in Guildford w...

The latest Today's Conveyancer podcast welcomes on Kevin Johnson and Jeremy Dorkins to discuss their latest venture as founders of On Point Data, a new search company launched in 2023.  Following significant consolidation of the search market over the past 5 years we are starting to see new ventures enter the fray again. On Point Data is one such example, with Kevin and Jeremy both explaining...

Running a busy conveyancing firm has its ups and down and you might have forgiven the latest guest on the Today's Conveyancer podcast if he had packed his bags and walked away when he sold his stake in his law firm in 2019 12 years after he set it up in 2007. But Simon Thomas returned in May 2021 to set up Montpellier Legal, a conveyancing focused practice in Cheltenham, with the opportunity...

The latest Today's Conveyancer podcast welcomes Simon McCrum to discuss the contents of his latest book "The Perfect Lawyer" with host David Opie. There isn't much Simon McCrum doesn't know about running a law firm having been there, done it, and got the t-Shirt. In this discussion Simon shares a little about his background and how he came to run the fastest growing law fi...