Conveyancing solicitors are rapidly becoming an endangered species.

However, despite the current adversities of the market, Fidler & Pepper has made conveyancing profitable and has improved the quality of its service.Like most others, the firm has had a computerised accounts, time-recording and database system since the mid 1980s.

In 1987 it took on a case management system designed exclusively for conveyancing.

Since outgrowing this system it has, since 1993, been running Select Legal System's case management software.When the firm began using the system the conveyancing department had to be dramatically re-organised.

Most fee-earners in the firm dabbled in conveyancing and it only comprised the main caseload of a few.

The first step was to insist that conveyancing could only be carried out by the conveyancing department.

Such dramatic moves as these can cause political problems; solicitors are reluctant to give up work.

But once a firm has agreed on the way forward it should make it impossible to go back.

Ruthlessness is necessary or things will soon revert to the old ways.

After a while it becomes second nature to pass work to each other.Delegation is necessary because it is uneconomic for a partner to spend time doing mundane administrative tasks in a conveyancing matter.

For this reason, at most firms the secretaries attend to these tasks.

Fidler & Pepper used its case management system to take this further:-- totally routine matters are taken from the secretary and carried out by the computer;-- day-to-day running of the matter is given to the secretary, who is helped by the computer;-- the solicitor deals with problems and advises clients on the law.The routine matters include all form-filling and progress letters to the client and agent.

Nearly every form we have to deal with -- with the exception of land charges forms -- is reproduced by the computer.

Consequently, sending out a local authority search or a 94A search simply involves pressing one button twice.

The fully completed search arrives on the laser printer within a few seconds.

With no extra work involved, this automation means that clients, estate agents and mortgagees are updated on matters as they occur, and also have the benefit of regularly seeing the firm's letterhead -- a feature which generates positive comments.At Fidler & Pepper, the secretaries are elevated to the status of 'assistant' and receive in-house training on various aspects of the law.

They are trained to spot potential problems early so that help can be sought from the solicitor.

It is wrong to assume that day-to-day work on a conveyancing matter is too important for secretarial s taff to be able to deal with it.

In pursuit of efficiency, work must be broken down into the administrative and the legal.

A builder would not dream of allowing a skilled bricklayer to do a labourer's job.The case management system follows a series of steps in each matter.

At each step, questions are asked, reminders to take the next step are given, documents are produced, and so on.

Quality control is incorporated into the system by reminders to take other actions -- and to chase them if they are not done -- and by cross-checks to make sure, for example, that the parties cannot exchange until the solicitor has done all the necessary pre-exchange tasks.

The system can be as complex or simple as the firm requires.Thanks to this system, solicitors are free to concentrate on investigating title, advising clients on the documentation, and resolving problems with the deeds.When the recession hit the housing market in the late 1980s, Fidler & Pepper was able to reduce its size to a far greater extent than would have been possible if a manual system had been in operation.

Yet the firm was also able to increase its standards of service to clients and agents by means of progress letters and quality checks throughout the conveyance.

None of the staff would now consider going back to a manual system.

Because of the way the firm has re-organised itself, with help from the case management system, the housing market could increase considerably without the need for extra staff.

Even if such work doubled, only junior staff would need to be recruited, not more solicitors.This method of working has been so efficient that it is now in force throughout the whole of our domestic, commercial property and matrimonial departments and is currently coming into force in the litigation department.

The procedure files now being written already have the firm's legal aid franchise requirements incorporated into them, in order to make it as easy as possible to comply with the franchise requirements.