Resolving Recruitment issues and Increasing Capacity
Client overview
Our client is a UK based conveyancing law firm specialising in residential and commercial property transactions, alongside wills and probate services. The firm manages a steady flow of property matters and supports clients across a range of title types including freehold, leasehold and new build developments.
As the firm continued to grow, recruitment and retention of experienced conveyancing staff in the UK became increasingly difficult. Over time this began to place additional pressure on internal teams and created challenges when trying to scale operational capacity in line with demand.
Client Testimonial
The Challenge
The firm faced a number of operational challenges that are common across many conveyancing practices in the UK:
- Difficulty recruiting experienced conveyancing staff in the UK market
- Increasing competition for trained paralegals and support staff
- Pressure on internal file handlers to manage growing workloads
- Administrative drafting work slowing down the wider transaction process
While the firm continued to receive a strong flow of instructions, leadership recognised that relying solely on UK recruitment would limit their ability to scale efficiently. They needed additional capacity to support document preparation and drafting work, while maintaining quality and consistency within the conveyancing process.
The firm partnered with Alpha to build a dedicated legal support team based in Durban, South Africa.
Rather than operating through a shared outsourcing model, Alpha created a small team aligned specifically to the firm’s conveyancing workflows, drafting requirements and internal systems. The team worked directly alongside the firm’s conveyancing leadership to ensure a clear understanding of documentation standards and transaction processes.
The solution included:
- A dedicated team of two full time conveyancing paralegals supported by a team leader
- UK aligned onboarding, training and drafting guidance delivered with the firm’s conveyancing director
- Integration with the firm’s case management systems including Leap and Actionstep
- A structured workflow where files were allocated through a shared mailbox and managed by the Alpha team lead
This structure allowed the firm to introduce additional drafting capacity while maintaining full oversight and integration with existing workflows.
Over the following months the partnership developed as the team became fully embedded within the firm’s conveyancing process.
The engagement initially began with one full time paralegal focused on freehold and leasehold matters. After demonstrating capability and reliability, the first team member was signed off on drafting within the first month and the team expanded to two full time paralegals after four months.
During this period:
- The team began drafting transfer documents, reports and enquiries for residential transactions
- Responsibilities expanded to include mortgage report drafting after six months
- Minimum service levels of four freehold and three leasehold matters per day were achieved
- Work was consistently completed within twenty four to forty eight hours depending on volume
Over a recent three month period the team completed more than four hundred instructions including transfer documents, mortgage reports and updates.
Why it worked
The partnership succeeded because the engagement focused on clear processes, structured training and close collaboration with the firm’s conveyancing leadership.
Key factors included:
By embedding the offshore team directly into the firm’s existing workflow, the business was able to introduce additional capacity without disrupting its internal processes.
