Out in the bush, it’s the law of the land

AT first glance, the NSW township of Nyngan doesn’t loom as a hi-tech haven.

Population 2000, it’s smack in the middle of the state, about 600km north-west of Sydney.

A 1990 flood almost wiped the place off the map and when the AC crew waded in from Dubbo, we were anxious about a repeat.

“Thunderstorms,” the official forecast said, “possibly severe with damaging winds, large hail and heavy rain which may lead to flash flooding.”

It wasn’t quite that bad, but locals rated it Nyngan’s wettest day in ages.

The town sits astride the Bogan River and one claim to fame is the Big Bogan. That’s a six-metre, rusty steel sculpture of a bloke with a mullet, thongs, singlet, a Southern Cross tattoo, a fishing rod and an Esky.

And a dog. Named Rusty, of course.

Another local attraction is Lawlab Conveyancing, a nationwide property law firm operating under that name since 2004.

Lawlab has handled more than 60,000 transactions worth $48 billion, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Darwin.

But the firm’s headquarters are on Pangee St, just a chip shot away from the Big Bogan.

There to meet us were Lawlab directors Richard Bootle and Ian Perkins, said to have put Nyngan on the map as an Aussie “Silicon Valley”.

“Well, Silicon Valley can be anywhere you have high-speed internet,” they said modestly.

But they’re pioneers, for sure.

Bootle, Perkins and Ian’s brother Graeme developed the in-house tech platform Rundl a decade ago, now followed by Launch, BuySecure, SellSecure and WillSecure.

They call Rundl the “Facebook of business”. It allows clients, brokers, agents and conveyancers to collaborate and check the progress of transactions online.

“What Rundl does is replace phone calls, faxes and emails,” Bootle said.

Like Facebook, parties to a transaction form a private group where they can discuss the deal, ask questions, examine and digitally sign documents.

“What Rundl does, it shares with everyone,” Perkins explained. “Everyone with permission to see the contract, can see the contract.” It saves time, money and reams of paperwork.

There are now similar products but Rundl was possibly the first, constantly evolving and adapting to various state and territorial jurisdictions.

The newer “Launch” is an internal matter management system.

The “Secure” suite are artificial intelligence tools, largely trained using quarantined metadata from those 60,000 files.

HQ ought to be a glass and steel edifice. But it’s an old bank building and former backpacker hostel still signposted as “Beancounters House”.

There are about 20 workstations, unmanned when we visited: staff working from home on this wet and miserable day – because they can.

Lawlab has 50 people nationwide, including 30 lawyers and licensed conveyancers.

“If you have a phone, we can deliver a conveyancing service,” Perkins said.

It wasn’t so simple at first. Nyngan had the ideas, the software but not the bandwidth. “Then we found out the Telstra
exchange had the ability to offer ADSL … but no one had ever asked for it,” Bootle said.

“We lobbied through our local MP and they turned it on.”

Locals were initially reluctant to embrace digital communication. That changed with the Covid pandemic.

“Seeing your lawyer and having a cup of tea was the premium service,” Perkins said. “Suddenly Covid came along and everyone was like ‘I don’t want to see my lawyer’!” Bootle added: “Covid was a great boost for business. It’s now standard that we do digital conveyancing.”

Why Nyngan? Bootle was born there, a family connection going back to the 1920s. A city-educated solicitor, he returned to help manage the family farm when his father suffered a heart attack.

Bootle also worked part-time in the local law office of Flashman & Chalker.

Perkins was in Sydney, eyeing a move to London for a career in banking law when he met Bootle, who persuaded him to head west. They bought Flashmans and rebranded it as Lawlab in 2004.

“We wrestled with just what to do, to grow,” Perkins said. “We decided to look at technology as a means for greater reach.”

Which allowed them to stay in Nyngan. The pair now own 37,000 acres, with Poll Hereford and Japanese Akaushi cattle plus crops including wheat, chickpeas, oats and barley.

Both love the rural lifestyle. “I get to have an exciting, challenging career in an industry that I’m passionate about,” Perkins
explained.

“But I still get to wake up on the farm, ride a motorbike, have a two-hour lunch break, go and chase some cows. I get the diversity and excitement of county living but I didn’t have to lose my corporate career. I feel I’ve got the best of both worlds.”

Bootle and Perkins do travel if required, say to initial meetings with important referrers. But thereafter, it’s mainly video conferences.

A trip to Sydney takes three hours by road and air, but they know city people whose daily commute is just as long. They’re restoring the 1878 family homestead overlooking the Bogan River.

It will be home, too, for Billy, their 10-month-old great dane.

Graeme Perkins heads their Melbourne-based software development team. They used to meet monthly but such is the
pace of change that it’s now weekly.

They’ve tried to marry country-style service with hi-tech tools, saying there is room for both.

“We believe firmly that there is a real place for conveyancers and lawyers looking after buyers and sellers,” they said.

“But the world has shifted and what we need to do is adopt the best from AI, to give us the time and space to do our job.”

It’s also a saving for clients. A contract review that might have taken days and cost up to $500 can be done in five minutes for about $80 using BuySecure.

It uses locally developed, tried and tested AI, not generic overseas systems.

“Buyers deserve tools built for Australian law, contracts and consumer protection,” Bootle said.

Lawlab offers a fixed-fee service with extras to be agreed upon. “We’re low-cost for lawyers, mid-range for conveyancers.”

They do worry about the challenges and regulatory burden faced by all conveyancers, big and small.

“I do think there is a really important role played by local suburban lawyers and conveyancers,” Bootle said.

“I don’t know how your average firm can compete, when I know how hard we work to stay abreast of change. The pressures on our industry are immense.”

Perkins added: “The banks, government, some of the real estate companies are huge. We have the least market power in this. Conveyancers really need to step up to the mark and be aware of the threats that are sitting around the corner.”

What might help is access to Lawlab’s software. They’re working on bundling the best of it into what they call “conveyancing in a box”.

“It’s an active process but we intend to have it out on the market within a year,” Bootle said.

One reservation about digital offices is the lack of live interaction between fledgling conveyancers and workmates.

“It’s a dilemma for the industry,” Perkins said. “Anyone with experience can work from home. But if you haven’t developed your
gut instincts, how do you do that without senior colleagues around you?

“How do you deal with a broker, a real estate agent?”

They’re addressing the issue with practical modules and training days but they admit there’s a lot to be said for watercooler chat.

“It’s a real and growing problem,” they said. “The opportunities we have to learn basic skills are being swept away.”

As for their own ambitions, unsurprisingly, it’s to be the best national provider of conveyancing services across all jurisdictions.

Bootle and Perkins aim to do it while still living in Nyngan, maintaining close business relationships, with that country service ethic.

“We’re not yet the biggest,” Bootle said, “but I’d argue we’re the best.”