Today’s Conveyancer recently spoke to Richard Mathias, founding Director of Law Firm Services, about the upcoming conference.
We asked Richard:
How many years has the Law Firm Services conference been going ?
This is the 4th LFS Conference and we already have more bookings than any other year. With more speakers and sponsors than ever before it promises to be our best yet.
What are the key themes this year and what do you consider are the main issues for conveyancers at the moment?
The theme is “Lenders and Lawyers working together” — Whilst there is much comment and debate about HSBC, most lenders aren’t thinking like them. They do however need to reduce their exposure to fraud, and lawyers need to understand this. By bringing the two groups together in this way we hope for more understanding on both sides.
Who will be speaking?
Paul Collins (Lloyds Banking Group), Tracey Carr (Santander) and Paul Broadhead (Building Societies Association) make up our lender representatives and a whole host of others including lawyers and PI insurers. The main attraction will be Justin Urquhart Stewart the Radio 4 Economist who gave such a fantastic speech 2 years ago.
Who will be attending?
To date over 125 people have booked, mainly representing the top 100 law firms by size (Land Reg Figs).
What are you doing new this year?
Whilst conferences tend to follow the same theme we have really changed the after-event dinner. We have introduced the inaugural Conveyancer of the Year Awards and these have been sponsored by Lloyds Banking Group. This will be a full black tie dinner with plenty of entertainment including a Live Band. There will still be charity fundraising and we hope to smash our total of £3300 from last year. In fact we have recently agreed to split the charity monies to help McMillan Cancer Research as well as the Alzheimers Society. Russell Manning of Manning Stainton Estate Agents has committed to raise £50K for McMillan this year and we aim to help him put a big hole in that target
What are the award categories?
Regional Conveyancing Firm of the year, Direct Conveyancing Firm of the year, Young Conveyancer of the Year, Best use of Social Media and Best Website /Marketing Campaign.
And how many entrants do you have up to now?
We have over 40 entries to date but think we could get as many as 100.
When is the final deadline for entries?
Monday, so only a few days to go.
The conference, which is to be held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry, will look at how law firms and lenders can work together to prevent fraud and improve the “conveyancing experience” for clients. Attendees will be eligible for 5 hours CPD.
For more information you can visit the Law Firm Services website.
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