‘Learn the law deeply, but learn the people more’

I came into conveyancing in 2001 at 18. I had no grand plan. I was working in a small Bathurst office, filing paperwork and learning the language of property. The work pulled me in slowly. Property is the most personal financial decision that most people ever make, and being trusted to guide someone through it is a privilege that does not wear off.

I am a fifth-generation Bathurst local, and that has shaped how I practise. In 2017, I opened Bell Conveyancing from my spare bedroom. I was a newly divorced single mother with a laptop, a short list of referrers from my real estate days and a need to build something of my own. I did reception, the admin, the research, handed out the advice and the marketing. There were nights when I wondered if I had made a mistake. I had not. The firm now operates across Orange and Bathurst with a team of nine, and I’m still as invested in every matter as I was in week one.

The hurdles were the ones every founder will recognise. Cash flow and saying ‘yes’ too much. And hiring. I learnt to hire ahead of the curve, before the work was piling up on the desk and there was no time to train properly. I also learnt to invest the hours in training people the right way from day one, because it’s very hard to change someone once wrong habits have set in. Build the systems, document everything and trust your standards more than your sympathy.

If I could speak to my younger self, I would say learn the law deeply, but learn the people more. A contract review is not a tick-and-flick exercise. Each one carries someone’s savings, someone’s retirement, someone’s first home. Care about that and the rest of the practice tends to look after itself.

To anyone starting out, don’t wait for permission to lead. Build your reputation in the small jobs. And network. Network, network, network. The referrers who helped build Bell Conveyancing were real estate agents, mortgage brokers, accountants and former clients who remembered being treated well. Relationships are the long game. Get comfortable with technology, too, but none of it replaces judgment or care.

The rewards are quieter than people imagine. A clean settlement. A repeat client on their third matter. A junior who grows into a leader. That’s the work, and after 25 years it still feels like a privilege.