A conveyancing practice keeps working through an outage or a cyber attack when it has tested backups, a written continuity plan, resilient connectivity, and the ability to recover to a known point quickly. The practices that recover in hours rather than weeks are the ones that planned for it before anything happened, and for most practices this resilience is part of managed IT that usually costs about £45 to £100 per user per month.
Conveyancing runs on deadlines and client money, so even a short outage can mean missed completions, broken chains and an unhappy lender, while a serious incident can bring SRA and ICO reporting duties. The aim is simple: make sure that when something goes wrong, the practice can keep going. Here is what that takes for a busy Harlow practice.
Tested, isolated backups
Backups are the foundation, but only if they are done properly. You need encrypted copies that an attacker cannot reach and encrypt along with your live data, covering your case files, LEAP data and Microsoft 365. Just as important, those backups must be test-restored on a schedule, so you know recovery actually works and how long it takes, rather than discovering a gap on the worst possible day.
A written continuity plan
When systems go down, people should not be improvising. A short, written plan sets out who does what, how the team keeps working in the meantime, who to notify, and how clients and the other side are kept informed. Even a simple plan turns a panic into a process, and it is exactly the kind of documentation lenders, insurers and the SRA increasingly expect to see.
Resilient connectivity and cloud access
If your tools are cloud-based or hosted, a resilient internet connection, ideally with automatic failover, keeps the practice working even when a line drops. Where systems can be reached securely from anywhere, a problem at the office does not have to stop the work, because fee earners can carry on from home or another site.
A recovery time you are comfortable with
Continuity is really about how quickly you can be back to normal. A good setup gives you a clear, agreed recovery time for your case management system and files, tested so you can trust it. Knowing you could be working again within hours, not days, is what lets you take on deadline-driven work with confidence.
The ransomware angle
Ransomware is now the most disruptive threat to law practices, and attackers often steal a copy of your data before encrypting it. That makes prevention, multi-factor authentication, endpoint protection, patching and email security, and tested, isolated backups two halves of the same plan. Together they mean an attack becomes a clean restore rather than a crisis, and you avoid being forced to consider paying.
What to ask a provider
A specialist for conveyancing solicitors should be able to answer:
- How often do you test-restore our backups, and what is our recovery time?
- Are backups isolated so ransomware cannot reach them?
- Do we have a written continuity plan, and is it kept current?
- How would we keep working if the office or its connection went down?
- Is this included in a clear, per-user price?
A real example: resilience in practice
We support a conveyancing practice with consistent systems, isolated backups and tested recovery across every office. That foundation is exactly what makes a fast, clean recovery possible, so an incident at one site becomes an inconvenience handled quietly rather than a practice-wide emergency.
What good continuity looks like
Good continuity is something you barely notice, because the work simply carries on. A line drops and the backup connection takes over; a laptop fails and a replacement is ready with everything on it; a file is deleted by mistake and restored within minutes; even a ransomware attack becomes a clean restore from isolated backups rather than a week of chaos and an awkward conversation about whether to pay. The deadlines are still met, the client money is still safe, and most of your team never even hears about the problem that was quietly handled in the background.
Getting there is not expensive or complicated, but it does have to be deliberate. It means deciding in advance how quickly you need to be back up, testing that you actually can, writing down who does what, and keeping all of it current as the practice changes. For a conveyancing practice that lives by completion dates, that preparation is the difference between a bad hour and a bad month, and it is exactly the sort of thing a good managed IT partner takes off your plate and simply maintains for you year-round.
Why conveyancing solicitors choose First Stop IT
First Stop IT has supported businesses since 2002, including conveyancing solicitors and high-street practices, and we know the software you run every day: LEAP, Oyez forms, eSigner, BigHand, Sage Payroll, PTP and Xero, alongside Microsoft 365. We support conveyancing solicitors in Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford, Sawbridgeworth, London and across Essex and Hertfordshire. Our credentials include:
- Cyber Essentials Certified
- IASME Cyber Assurance (Gold)
- NCSC Assured Service Provider (Cyber Advisor for Cyber Essentials)
- Microsoft Partner
- Crown Commercial Service Supplier (G-Cloud)
- Quality Principles Certified
We look after more than 2,000 endpoints across 50 companies, we have been named a Top 50 UK MSP for three years running, and we support organisations with 10 to 100 employees across Essex, Hertfordshire and London, including Harlow and Bishop’s Stortford.
Book a free IT and cyber security review
Want this set up properly for your practice? Book a free IT and cyber security review with First Stop IT.