JUDGEMENT OVER VOLUME: LESSONS FOR REAL ESTATE LAWYERS IN 2026

For legal professionals working in real estate, 2025 likely felt contradictory. The market slowed in some segments, but the work did not. Transactions demanded more judgment, deeper due diligence, and more client guidance, even as expectations for speed and convenience continued to rise.

For Adam Richardson, senior partner at Toronto-based real estate law firm Korman & Company, that balancing act defines what real estate practice now requires and offers a clear signal for how firms should be positioning themselves in 2026.

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.

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.

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," Adam says. "Technology should close the gap by streamlining those steps 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.

Adam points to lender revisions as an example of a simple scenario 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.

Reliability is Adam's top priority when evaluating technology tools. "In this kind of work, you need systems you can rely on," he says.

Integration and interoperability — systems that speak to other systems — come next. "When you're opening the same file in five different platforms, it's redundant and costly."

His firm has relied on Dye & Durham's Unity® — and its predecessor, Conveyancer — as its core conveyancing platform for over 25 years, valuing stability, security, and seamless integration across the broader real estate workflow.

Looking ahead, Adam sees real potential in AI and semi-autonomous workflows, provided they are implemented responsibly. Used well, AI can support drafting, research, and communication, improving efficiency without replacing professional judgment.

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.

Adam's perspective is shaped in part by his own path. Rising from articling to becoming one of the firm's youngest senior partners meant having to demonstrate results early in his career. Over time, his youth became an advantage — a fluency in technology, operations, and time management that helped modernize how the firm works without eroding professional standards.

That lens also informs how Adam thinks about training and development. Law school teaches lawyers how to think — how to analyze issues, structure arguments, and spot risk. The craft of practice, however, is learned later through experience, mentorship, and repetition. Firms that fail to support that transition often see burnout long before lawyers reach their stride.

Positioning for 2026

In 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.

From an operational standpoint, firms face a dual challenge: remaining sustainable in a slower market while staying ready for a sudden resurgence in volume. That may mean adjusting fee structures, diversifying beyond residential purchases and sales and picking up refinancing work, or expanding into complementary areas such as wills and estates, corporate work, or family law.

The most immediate strain point, however, is economic. Residential real estate firms are facing downward pressure on fees while staffing and overhead costs continue to rise. Competing solely on price has become increasingly risky.

That approach does not appeal to every client, but it reflects a broader question firms must confront as they look ahead: how to align pricing, value, and sustainability in a market that increasingly expects more for less.

The real work of 2026 is building practices and systems that can meet modern expectations without burning out the people behind them, creating enough operational headroom for lawyers to focus on what clients value most: sound judgment, risk management, and clear, timely advice.