Lawyerless Model Is The Future For Conveyancing

By Marcel Pitt, Head of Commercial, Australia and New Zealand, Docusign

Australian legal practice Colin Biggers & Paisley is addressing a long standing pain point in property purchasing. The progressive firm has developed a ‘lawyerless’ conveyancing model, using electronic contracts generated in Docusign as part of a process that will ultimately see paperless Conveyancing extend to full automation.

Colin Biggers & Paisley has been quick to respond to the introduction of The Electronic Transactions Act in 1999, using this landmark event in the industry’s transition to the digital era as an opportunity to create a brand new automated model to speed up conveyancing and retail leases. Its electronic system is set to minimise lawyer involvement, reducing costs and time for all parties.

What’s exciting is that cost savings for clients could be as much as 50 per cent through this new automated digital model and time required to finalise retail leases is also expected to decrease, from six weeks to seven days!

In an interview with The Australian Financial Review Colin Biggers & Paisley partner Mark Morgan talked about how cut-throat competition in the legal sector is driving technology adoption by individual firms that are keen to remain attractive and highly competitive in the market. He explains, “Because the market is overcrowded, cost cutting has reached a point where lawyers are now doing it [their services] uneconomically. They're not making any money.”

Colin Biggers & Paisley has already ‘DocuSigned’ the conveyancing for more than 1,000 residential properties and will also use the platform for retail leases. This model has brought down its billing hours for preparing lease documents by 80 per cent.

Morgan commented, “Our clients have said, 'we're happy for lawyers to have a lot of input in the creation of the initial contract, but we don't want to keep involving lawyers'. Clients just want a simple, accurate, secure contract system."

The digital transaction management platform is an extension of Docusign’s eSignature technology which Colin Biggers & Paisley have been using for the past year to meet client demands in a fast, cost-effective way.

If you would like to find out more about how your business could benefit from digital transaction management visit our Solutions for Legal Departments page.