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It seems strange that in today’s corporate world, the only people to have full secretarial support are those who are least likely to need it. They are the captains of industry who spend most of their time in meetings instead of sitting in front of a screen pushing out documentation in volume. For the rest of us, it’s about making the best of what limited support is available to us. One of the positives coming out of the covid lockdowns was a permanent change in working habits, which means that we can do more of our work from the back bedroom instead of traipsing through the morning and evening rush hours. Who would want to go back to that? It was also fortuitous that this change in working habits coincided with technical developments which enable us to meet on teams at the moment’s notice instead of taking an afternoon out of the office to meet face to face. So what has all this got to do with New Year’s resolutions? Just this! In conveyancing, time is money. A delayed completion often means a delayed rental stream or a delayed capital receipt. And everyone loses.

If progress on a transaction stalls completely, other things will supervene and it will begin to unravel. One of the issues I have with traditional time recording is that it rewards inefficiency, with the slowest most inexperienced fee earner charging out the most time for a transaction. When it should be all about unit-cost, meaning that the faster you are able to work without compromising on quality or accuracy, the better value you are providing to your corporate client. In this post, I provide suggestions for ten New Year work-resolutions which can help you become one of the most efficient conveyancers in your team, simply by making the best use of the resources which are available to you . Here they are:

1. Dictate! Dictate Dictate! All computers which are Windows 10 and above, have a voice dictation facility. But you will need to find it and enable it. Voice dictation is improving all the time but is still far from perfect. Unlike a secretary, automated voice dictation cannot interpret what you have said. It will simply transcribe what it thinks you have said. So if I dictate the word, ‘ comma’, it will tell me to ‘Call my Mum’. If I say ‘draft’, as in document, it will give me the draught which is blowing in through the open window behind me. So why do I use voice dictation? Because even with its many faults, it is still three times quicker than typing everything out longhand.
2. Purchase a wired mouse, a wired keyboard, a wide-screen monitor and a wired headset which you are going to use if you are going to dictate. Unless you have micro fingers, don’t try doing all your work on the tiny keyboard which is attached to your laptop. Invest in a wide screen monitor so you don’t have to squint. Using a wide screen also makes it easier to proofread documentation and reduces the risk of mistakes.
3. Take an interest in legal developments, even if they don’t directly relate to your work. If you are working in a bubble, it is too easy to miss the big changes which are happening in mainstream conveyancing. Subscribe to an online newsletter like ‘Today’s Conveyancer,’ which is aimed at the high street practitioner.
4. Take time to get to know your corporate clients and learn what they really want from an in-house legal service. It’s not about being ‘cheap and cheerful’. Instead of huddling together with other lawyers, try to become part of the client team.
5. Be serious about meeting your financial targets, even if colleagues are not meeting theirs.
6. The 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. core hours slot is sacrosanct. Nothing must be allowed to get in the way of chargeable work. Try to keep training and other distractions out of those core hours.
7. Be prepared to innovate and discover ways to improve productivity. Set up templates and standardise wherever possible. Don’t send out documentation in draft if you can send out an engrossment.
8. Look for ways to raise your own professional profile. Remember that meeting continuous professional development (CPD) requirements need not only involve being a passive listener. You can also earn points by presenting training to clients and prospective clients and raise your own profile in the process.
9. Have confidence in your own professional judgement. And be prepared to provide your client with clear and robust advice. If you don’t have confidence in your own professional judgement, why should anybody else have confidence in you?
10. Never pass up an opportunity to get into management, even if it’s only for a few months to cover somebody’s maternity leave. Management experience does not only look good on your CV. Leadership is also a valuable life skill which can only be learned by doing. And if you go into management, make sure that you look, act, and sound like a manager, because it will affect the way other people react to you.