How a 6-person conveyancing firm stopped losing matter readiness races.
Harbour Conveyancing is a small residential conveyancing practice in Bristol — two solicitors, three licensed conveyancers, and one part-time admin assistant. They handle 40-60 residential matters at any given time.
They're good at the legal work. They're drowning in the document chasing.
Every conveyancing matter starts the same way: a pile of documents lands, and someone has to chase, check, and organise them before any actual legal work can begin. For a typical buyer-side purchase, the firm needs client ID, source-of-funds evidence, title register, draft contract, TA6, TA10, mortgage offer, search results, and more.
By week four, the matter still isn't exchange-ready. The client is calling daily. The solicitor is spending her afternoon explaining to three different people that they're waiting on documents, not on legal work.
The cost: Admin spends 15-20 hours/week on document chasing. Solicitor spends 3-5 hours/week re-reading email threads. Matters take 2-3 weeks longer. Client complaints 3-4/month. 1.5 matters/month hit last-minute delays.
Foundry sits on a Mac Studio in the office. Here's what Sarah's team set up:
A document intake desk that works like a checklist, not a robot.
When documents arrive — by email, upload, or the firm's case management system — Foundry reads them. For each document, Foundry identifies what it is, checks it's the right document for this matter, extracts key information, flags problems (unanswered TA6 questions, expired passport, missing donor letter), and updates the matter readiness checklist.
Crucially, Foundry does not: Give legal advice. Decide whether source of funds is acceptable. Approve, reject, or pass any compliance check. Send anything to clients or third parties. Replace the case management system.
Every output is a draft for a human to review. Every action requires a person to say "yes, send that."
Admin hours/week: 15-20
Solicitor hours/week: 3-5
Time to exchange-ready: 5-7 weeks
Complaints: 3-4/month
Delayed matters: 1.5/month
Admin hours/week: 4-6
Solicitor hours/week: 0.5-1
Time to exchange-ready: 3-4 weeks
Complaints: <1/month
Delayed matters: 0.2/month
Financial impact: 14-18 hours of professional time freed per week. At £150-250/hour, that's £2,100-4,500/week of recovered capacity. Annual capacity increase: £100,000-150,000 in additional billable work, without hiring.
Foundry cost: £999 setup + £99/month = £2,187 first year. Existing Mac Studio, no new hardware.
Stays cloud: Email delivery, case management system (LEAP/Hoowla), bank checks and AML screening (Thirdfort/SmartSearch), Land Registry portal.
Does not: Give legal advice. Approve or reject matters. Check AML or pass source-of-funds. Send anything without human approval.
"The first week it was running, it caught a missing donor letter on a £30,000 gifted deposit that we wouldn't have spotted for another two weeks. That alone justified the setup cost." Sarah, firm owner
"I used to start every Monday dreading the email backlog. Now I look at the dashboard, see what needs me, and I'm done in twenty minutes. The rest of the morning is actual legal work." James, licensed conveyancer
Works for residential conveyancing firms with 2-20 fee earners, practices handling 30+ active matters, firms with data confidentiality requirements (SRA, CLC, ICO).