Meet Caithlin McParland. Caithlin is a trainee solicitor specialising in residential conveyancing. She has worked at Prosperity Law for two years and began her training in July 2021. Caithlin graduated from Queen University Belfast with a 2:1 and has also obtained a Merit in Masters in law and began her LPC at John Moores University in September 2019.
About Caithlin and her career so far
Caithlin lives not far from the Prosperity Law office in Liverpool, the city she has called home since beginning her master’s degree in 2019 after moving from Belfast. Caithlin continued her studies at John Moores University in the city whilst working as a paralegal at Prosperity Law, allowing her to complete the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and move onto solicitor traineeship within the conveyancing team.
A team that at the time were and continue to be very busy, as the housing market booms and shows no signs of slowing, Caithlin has joined the industry at a key time. Six months into her training, Caithlin has just eight months left to go before she is fully qualified.
Caithlin, originally from a small rural town called Armagh in Northern Ireland, likes to return home every couple of months and visit friends around the rest of the UK. When not working she enjoys tasting new cuisines and restaurants.
Starting her career with Prosperity within the public liability team as a paralegal, with a focus on road traffic accidents before making the move to the property team under, Partner & Head of Conveyancing, Siobhan Beattie.
What’s a day in the life like for Caithlin?
No two days are the same, as things move quickly within the industry and all relevant parties need to be kept up to date on the various stages of the transaction, whether it’s the client themself, an estate agent, financial advisor or the bank. Ensuring regular communications and that everyone involved in the process is working abreast with each other is vital.
Daily Caithlin can be doing various things for various clients as they progress through the stages of a purchase or a sale – from opening a file, sending draft contracts, raising enquiries on plots, ordering funds for completion that’s due or sending completion statements to dealing with the Land Registry and other post-completion administration that needs to be tied up. The job involves managing the entire process of a file which keeps Caithlin and her colleagues engrossed in the transaction.
The hardest thing about her job is the reliance on third parties whether it be for progress or information and unfortunately, a part of Caithlin’s job is to give her client bad news that’s come out of discovery stages. Likewise, the best part of the role is telling a buyer the keys are ready to be picked up, particularly with first-time buyers.
Occasionally a really difficult situation will occur, such as a client’s chosen property won’t have the appropriate building regulations and Caithlin will need to balance up protecting the client from a bad transaction whilst appreciating that they are usually already invested in the purchase. Caithlin added;
“I have seen in just the couple of years that I’ve been doing this so far, some really unexpected things pop up. But it’s just about how you deal with it and find the solution to it.”
An important aspect of Caithlin’s job is that when she is speaking with clients or indeed anyone involved in the process she is actively listening – the value of this skill is occasionally highlighted in unexpected ways. In a recent conversation with a client, there was discussion around the client’s garden plans but Caithlin noticed then when looking at the property files the property boundary did not legally include the garden, the issue was quickly and peaceful resolved but could have potentially caused her client a lot of aggravation in the future has Caithlin not noticed when she did and resolved it.
How is the industry?
Caithlin and the rest of her team have endured a soaring industry as people rushed to take advantage of the Government’s stamp duty holiday scheme and the backlog from market closure moved. Although things have slowed slightly as the tax break came to end, the pace is not at pre-pandemic levels yet and won’t likely be anytime soon. The team have scaled up a lot during the past 18 months and continue to do so which means that the service level clients receive continues to be of the highest standard.
When asked what Caithlin thought would happen in the next year or so within the industry she told us;
“I have been having this conversation a lot, particularly at a networking group I attend monthly. The other people in the group tend to be property investors and people who buy to let and other property owners. I think it’s gonna keep growing for now and for a while at least will continue to be a seller’s market.”
Caithlin finished off her interview with us by telling us if she could buy a place to live anywhere in the world it would be a very difficult choice between Rome and Madrid, somewhere warm – but if she had to stick to the UK, she’s very happy to stay in Liverpool.
