The five reasons why legal expertise matters when designing legal workflows
By Shirlyn Wong, Ochresoft
Conveyancers and private client practitioners manage large volumes of information, regulatory requirements and client communication, often while balancing substantial caseloads. Alongside carrying out legal work, firms must ensure compliance is adhered to, risks are managed and clients remain informed throughout their matter.
This is particularly important in conveyancing and private client work, where missed steps, inconsistent processes or poor communication can have significant consequences for both firms and their clients.
Technology plays an important role in supporting consistency and efficiency, but the value of any workflow depends on how closely it reflects the nature of legal practice. Intelliworks has been developed by Ochresoft with this in mind. Its conveyancing and private client workflows are created and maintained by specialists with knowledge and experience of the legal sectors they support.
To mark Customer Services Week, we explore five reasons why the right people and proper legal expertise play an important role in creating workflows that work in practice.
- Client expectations are placing greater pressure on firms
Recent figures from the Office for Legal Complaints highlight the growing importance of effective client communication and service delivery. During the year ending 31st March 2026, the Legal Ombudsman received more than 14,000 new complaints from customers, representing a 37% increase from the previous year.
Residential conveyancing accounted approximately 36% of accepted complaints. The Legal Ombudsman’s analysis indicates that many conveyancing complaints relate to communication, the management of client expectations and the way delays are explained.
These figures reflect the challenges that many firms face and why it is crucial to have legal experts when designing and continuously supervise workflows. Clients increasingly expect regular updates, transparency and a clear understanding of what is happening with their matter. Meeting those expectations while managing compliance obligations and caseload pressures has become an increasingly important part of delivering a positive client experience.
- Supporting sensitive private client matters
Private client work brings a different set of professional and operational considerations. Wills, Probate and Lasting Powers of Attorney frequently involve complex family circumstances, significant assets and clients who may require additional care, reassurance and guidance.
In these matters, accuracy, consistency and clear record keeping are essential. At the same time, practitioners need the flexibility to respond to the individual needs and circumstances of each client.
Intelliworks private client workflows support areas such as instruction gathering, document production, form completion, calculations and matter administration. A structured approach helps ensure key stages are managed consistently while enabling practitioners to focus their attention on understanding clients’ objectives, answering questions and providing the personal service expected during important life events.
- Developed and maintained by legal specialists
One of the most important aspects of any legal workflow is ensuring it reflects current legal practice.
The conveyancing and private client workflows within Intelliworks are developed and maintained by specialists with experience and expertise in the sectors they support. Their role is to monitor legislative developments, regulatory changes and industry guidance, assessing how these changes affect day-to-day legal processes.
This continual review helps ensure workflows remain relevant and aligned with the practical realities faced by legal professionals, providing firms with confidence that the processes supporting their work are informed by current sector knowledge.
- Workflows that evolve with legal practice
Effective workflows are most valuable when they reflect real-world legal practice. By incorporating the knowledge and experience of legal professionals, workflows can embed proven processes, key checks and best-practice guidance directly into day-to-day operations.
This expert-led approach helps firms maintain compliance, improve consistency and reduce the risk of missed steps, while ensuring workflows remain aligned with both regulatory requirements and the practical realities of legal work.
The people behind the scenes
At Ochresoft, the focus on translating legal expertise into practical workflow development helps ensure best practice is embedded into day-to-day processes. Marie Harrison-Stradling, Workflow Team Manager at Ochresoft explains how this happens behind the scenes: “Within my role, I review upcoming changes in legislation, regulation and best practice that may impact private client practitioners and our workflows. Crucially, I interpret what these changes will look like in day to day practice, the impact they will have on our customers and their clients and how we can best assist private client practitioners to navigate these changes by updating and enhancing our workflows. I’m also constantly reviewing the tools and guidance private client practitioners will need to meet the responsibilities and requirements of any changes – we can then translate this to new features and enhancements within our workflows.”
As client expectations, compliance requirements and operational pressures continue to evolve, having the right people and processes in place has never been more important.As Bryn Foulkes, Senior Workflow Analyst at Ochresoft explains, “Working alongside legally qualified professionals allows us to incorporate real-world experience of day-to-day legal practice into our workflows, while ensuring they remain aligned with current compliance requirements. Combined with more than 20 years of developing private client software and workflows, this helps us deliver best-in-class processes for Wills, Probate and Lasting Powers of Attorney, with risk management built in from the outset.”
Find out how Intelliworks supports conveyancing and private client firms with expert-led workflows designed around the realities of legal practice.