The Standard Onboarding Model and Its Fatal Flaw
Any new fee earner that starts their career is usually placed in the pre-exchange team. It is a team where fast-paced calls dominate and the energy is one of passion. Phones are non-stop ringing trying to get the last completion in before the end of the month.
There is a buzz in this department rightly so, but should our training really sit in such an environment? Have we as leaders created a generation of property lawyers who do not perform to the best of their ability as they have been consumed into this frantic buzz driven by completion numbers that are not necessarily aligned with best practice in post-completion?
If so, we open to a fatal flaw that must be remedied.
The Inherited Problem
I have worked in post-completion for 21 years and I experienced the same fatal flaw. When I was asked to be the head of post-completion at a very early stage of my career as a property solicitor, it was a learning curve. I realised that post-completion is as important as pre-exchange work but sits at the end of a transaction and is a mirror of how well the pre-exchange teams have performed.
As my career moved ahead, I was placed in a directorship role, and I took my first steps to combat this fatal flaw.
There was the misconception that walking out of Law School with an air of authority demanded a seat in the pre-exchange team. When I told my new entrants to take a seat in post-completion, they looked at me stunned. My answer to such astonishment was that if you want to be the best in your career then this is where you start off.
Post-completion is the audit of everything that came before. We do not create those problems, we inherit them. It becomes a strain when the pre-exchange teams are too busy to help the post-completion teams, and then there is the extra layer of non-compliance with missed priority dates and adverse entries on the title.
These problems would not be apparent if only our training started at the end of the transaction.
Start With the End
My proposition is straightforward: every new entrant to conveyancing should begin their career in post-completion. I understand pipeline numbers are crucial for running a business, but I would encourage this practice for future gains.
The effects, in my experience, are tangible:
- Submissions to HM Land Registry become more accurate because fee earners understand what requisitions look like in practice
- Leasehold matters are handled with more rigour because the consequences of missed notices are no longer abstract
- Files are better organised throughout the transaction because post-completion teams have explained what they need to do their job.
Why This Challenges Established Practice
I am aware that what I am proposing runs counter to how the industry has always operated. The instinct in most firms is to get new people fee-earning as quickly as possible. Every day spent in post-completion is a day not spent building a caseload.
But this is short-term thinking. The cost of a fee earner who consistently generates requisitions or creates post-completion problems that require hours of remedial work, is far greater than the cost of a few weeks’ investment in training them correctly from the start.
We are also, I think, guilty of undervaluing post-completion expertise as a profession. It is seen as the end of the line rather than the foundation of good conveyancing. That perception is wrong and it shapes the way we train people, resource our teams, and think about the pipeline into conveyancing. This is why I made it my mission 10 years ago to try and resolve these shortcomings.
A Practical Starting Point
For any firm owner or practice manager reading this, the implementation does not have to be complicated. Start here:
- Identify one or two post-completion specialists willing to host and debrief fee earners
- Structure a day per month for every fee earner and new starter
- Build a simple debrief template: what did you see today, what caused it, and what could have prevented it?
- For new entrants specifically, consider a four-to-six-week period in post-completion before they take on their first file.
The investment is modest. The return in quality, consistency, and reduced risk is not.
We have been training conveyancers from the front to the back for generations. It is time to try it the other way around.