Judgment Over Volume: Lessons for Real Estate Lawyers Heading into 2026
“Each transaction required a lot more legal advice,” Adam says, reflecting on a year shaped by buyer opportunity, seller strain, and growing complexity behind every file.
What Changed Inside the File
“Each transaction required a lot more legal advice,” Adam says, reflecting on a year shaped by buyer opportunity, seller strain, and growing complexity behind every file.
The condominium market increasingly felt like a buyer’s market, especially for first-time buyers. While that created opportunity in the industry, it also introduced risk. Buyers needed clearer explanations and more careful review to make informed decisions. On the seller side, interest rates and broader economic pressure contributed to more power of sale transactions and situations where sale proceeds were insufficient to satisfy secured lenders and creditors.
The pre-construction market had its own challenges. Final closings and occupancies sometimes collided with falling values or higher occupancy fees, leading to difficult conversations around assignments and the possibility of default.
The result was a year where professional judgment mattered more than volume. This reality has real implications for how firms structure work, price files, and support their people in 2026. And those implications show up most clearly across three pillars: efficiency, technology, and people.
“Each transaction required a lot more legal advice,” Adam says, reflecting on a year shaped by buyer opportunity, seller strain, and growing complexity behind every file.
Efficiency as the Baseline
When Adam began articling more than a decade ago, in-person closings were non-negotiable. Today, virtual meetings, digital identity verification, electronic signing, and wire transfers are simply how the work gets done. Clients no longer expect to take time off work to attend an in-office signing or pick up keys. Closings are faster, smoother, and easier from the client’s perspective.
“In the pace of communication and work, the expectation has picked up,” Adam says.
When Adam began articling more than a decade ago, in-person closings were non-negotiable. Today, virtual meetings, digital identity verification, electronic signing, and wire transfers are simply how the work gets done. Clients no longer expect to take time off work to attend an in-office signing or pick up keys. Closings are faster, smoother, and easier from the client’s perspective.
While this shift has been overwhelmingly positive, it has also permanently reset expectations. Efficiency is now a baseline, not a differentiator. Clients want fast, substantive responses.
At the same time, the number of steps required behind the scenes to close a file has increased. Expanded regulatory requirements and deeper due diligence have added complexity that clients rarely see, creating a widening gap between their expectations and reality.
“I don’t think the solution is burdening clients by walking them through every step that happens on the back end, Technology should close the gap by genuinely streamlining workflows and reducing friction.”
Technology That Actually Helps
In this high-expectation environment, technology earns its place only when it meaningfully reduces complexity. Tools or features that add steps undermine the very efficiency they promise, no matter how advanced they appear.
“Technology should close the gap by genuinely streamlining workflows and reducing friction.”
In this high-expectation environment, technology earns its place only when it meaningfully reduces complexity. Tools or features that add steps undermine the very efficiency they promise, no matter how advanced they appear. Adam points to lender revisions as an example where technology improves the process; what once required clients to return to the office for re-signing can now be resolved quickly through secure electronic workflows.
Integration and interoperability—systems that speak to other systems—are essential to avoid redundant, costly manual entry across multiple platforms.
Retention and the Next Generation
According to Adam, Korman & Company treats retention as strategy. Long-tenured clerks, partners, and staff are the result of deliberate choices around workload design, pricing discipline, and technology that supports the work. Hybrid models, the right to disconnect, and paperless operations were in place well before they became industry talking points after the pandemic.
“Understand that you’re not in an industry where you just click buttons to transfer title. Your judgment is the product.”
According to Adam, Korman & Company treats retention as strategy. Long-tenured clerks, partners, and staff are the result of deliberate choices around workload design, pricing discipline, and technology that supports the work. Hybrid models, the right to disconnect, and paperless operations were in place well before they became industry talking points after the pandemic.
His advice to new lawyers is clear: the craft of practice is learned through experience and mentorship. Firms that fail to support that transition often see burnout long before lawyers reach their stride. Law school teaches you how to think, but repetition and guidance build the judgment clients actually pay for.
Positioning for 2026
Heading into 2026, Adam expects continued uncertainty tied to interest rates and broader economic conditions. But he also expects transactional activity to continue. Life events still drive real estate decisions, and people will always need to move.
Heading into 2026, firms face a dual challenge: staying sustainable in a slower market while remaining ready for a sudden resurgence in volume. This may mean adjusting fee structures or diversifying into complementary areas like wills and estates or corporate work.
The real work of 2026 is building systems that meet modern expectations without burning out the people behind them. This creates the operational headroom needed to focus on what clients value most: sound judgment, risk management, and clear advice.
“There’s still a market for legal advice. But you have to be willing to price for it.”
Adam Richardson is a Senior Partner at Korman & Company with over a decade of experience specializing in Ontario residential real estate, including luxury properties, cottages, and preconstruction transactions. Utilizing a combined JD/HBA from Western Law and the Ivey School of Business, he provides a pragmatic, business-oriented approach and offers streamlined, virtual closing experiences for clients province-wide. Adam is an active industry collaborator, working alongside major title insurers and legal tech providers to enhance the closing process and establish modernized standards for high-integrity transactions