In this article
Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →Most people choose the person who will handle their property transfer in an afternoon. A friend passes on a name, the agent mentions a firm, a quote arrives by email, and the file is opened before the buyer has asked a single question about who is behind it. For the largest purchase most households make, that is a short selection process.
It does not need to be a long one. Queensland law makes the checking simpler than in most states, because the work is reserved for one regulated profession, and the profession's regulator publishes a searchable record of who is in it. Ten minutes with public sources will confirm whether a person is entitled to do the work, what kind of business they work in, and who would look at a complaint if one ever arose.
This guide walks through those sources in the order a client would use them: the practising certificate, the Queensland Law Society's register, the structure of the firm, specialist accreditation, the Legal Services Commission and the engagement documents. It recommends no firm and no type of firm. It describes how the system is built, using the Legal Profession Act 2007 as in force on 1 July 2025 and the published material of the Law Society and the Commission.
Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), section 47, on the life of a certificate; Queensland Law Society and Legal Services Commission published information on their roles.
Why Queensland has no licensed conveyancers
Readers who have bought in another state often arrive with the wrong vocabulary. Elsewhere in Australia a "licensed conveyancer" is a separate occupation with its own licence. Queensland has no such occupation. Here, a person who carries out a conveyance for reward is doing legal work, and legal work belongs to lawyers.
Related readThe indemnity insurance that stands behind a Queensland conveyancing fileThe rule is in section 24 of the Legal Profession Act 2007. A person must not engage in legal practice in Queensland unless the person is an Australian legal practitioner. The maximum penalty stated in the section is 300 penalty units or two years' imprisonment, which signals how seriously the Act treats the boundary.
The same section recognises that real estate agents handle contracts every day. As the section reads on the Queensland legislation website, a licensee under the Property Occupations Act 2014, or the licensee's employee, is not engaging in legal practice merely by preparing or completing a property contract, provided no legal advice is given. That is why an agent can fill in the standard contract but will send a buyer or seller elsewhere for advice on what a clause means.
So the word "conveyancer" in Queensland describes a job, not a licence. A firm may employ conveyancing clerks or paralegals who do much of the daily work on a file, and many of them are highly experienced. They work under a law practice. The person answerable for the file is a solicitor, and the first check is about that solicitor.
The practising certificate: the credential that counts
Section 6 of the Act defines an Australian legal practitioner as a person who holds a current practising certificate, whether issued in Queensland or in another state or territory. The certificate, not the law degree, is what entitles a person to act for a client.
Three features of the certificate are worth knowing.
It expires. Under section 47, a local practising certificate is in force from the date stated in it until the end of the financial year in which it is granted, and a renewed certificate runs to the end of the following financial year. Every solicitor in the state therefore goes back to the regulator each year. A certificate that was current when a friend used the firm three years ago says nothing certain about today.
Related readProperty searches in a Queensland purchase: a map of who holds whatIt comes in categories. Section 45 lets the regulatory authority decide the categories of local practising certificate. The category tells you whether the holder may run a practice as a principal or works as an employee of one.
It can carry conditions. Section 53 allows the authority to impose any reasonable and relevant condition, and the Act's examples include continuing legal education, limits tied to supervised practice and controls on trust accounts. A condition is not a mark against a solicitor. Section 56 places every newly certified lawyer under a statutory condition of supervised legal practice, for 18 months or two years after the first certificate is granted, depending on the kind of practical training completed. A junior solicitor working on a conveyancing file under supervision is the system operating as designed.
For solicitors, the body that issues certificates is the Queensland Law Society. The Society describes its statutory responsibilities under the Legal Profession Act 2007 as including the issue of practising certificates and the keeping of solicitors' records.
Searching the Law Society's register
The Law Society keeps records of all current legal practitioners in Queensland and publishes a Register of Solicitors on its website. It is the natural first stop, and it is free to search.
The register can be searched by a solicitor's name. It also offers filters to refine a search, including areas of practice and the type of organisation. A buyer who has been given a name types it in and looks for a current entry. A buyer who has only a firm name can look for the solicitors attached to it.
Related readRetirement villages and manufactured homes: not an ordinary conveyanceA few practical points help.
- Search the person, not only the firm. A trading name on a website is not always the name under which the law practice is recorded, while the solicitor's own name is.
- Check spelling variants and middle names before concluding someone is absent. Common surnames produce several results.
- If a person who says they are a solicitor cannot be found, or appears without a current certificate, the Law Society's register page asks the public to raise the concern with its records team. That is the right channel. It is not a matter to argue out with the firm's receptionist.
The Society also runs a separate "Find a Solicitor" referral service. The two should not be confused. The register is the record of who holds a certificate. The referral service is something solicitors opt in to, under its own terms and conditions, and so it is a list of practitioners who have chosen to be listed for referrals, not a list of everyone entitled to practise. Absence from a referral list means nothing. Absence from the register means a great deal.
Roll, certificate, complaints: who keeps what
One source of confusion is that several bodies each hold a different piece of a lawyer's professional standing. Admission, certification and complaint handling are separate functions in Queensland, and they sit in separate places.
Admission comes first. Section 37 of the Act requires the Supreme Court to keep a roll of persons admitted to the legal profession as lawyers. Being on the roll makes someone a lawyer. It does not by itself allow them to act for a client, which is the job of the practising certificate.
The table sets out who to look to for each question a client might have.
| Question | Who holds the answer | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Was this person admitted as a lawyer? | Supreme Court of Queensland, which keeps the roll | The person has been admitted to the profession. |
| May this person act for me today? | Queensland Law Society, which issues certificates and keeps the register | A current practising certificate is held. |
| Who looks at a complaint about conduct? | Legal Services Commission | Complaints are received and investigations managed there. |
| Who decides a claim that the work was negligent? | The courts | Negligence is a civil claim, outside the Commission's powers. |
Legal Profession Act 2007 (Qld), sections 6 and 37; Queensland Law Society; Legal Services Commission information for complainants.
The practical lesson is that the second row is the one a client checks before engaging anyone. The others matter only if something goes wrong, and for most transactions they never do.
Who stands behind the firm: principals and directors
A solicitor rarely works alone. The Act uses the term "law practice" for the business, and it identifies the people who carry responsibility for it as principals.
Section 7 lists who counts as a principal. It is an Australian legal practitioner who is a sole practitioner, a partner in a law firm, a legal practitioner director of an incorporated legal practice, or a legal practitioner partner in a multi-disciplinary partnership. Those four labels cover the business structures a conveyancing client is likely to meet.
Related readSolicitors' trust accounts and the fidelity fund in a property saleA sole practitioner is one solicitor who owns and runs the practice. A law firm, in the Act's language, is a partnership of solicitors. Both are the traditional forms, and their names usually give them away.
The incorporated legal practice is the form that puzzles people, because it looks like any other company. A practice whose name ends in "Pty Ltd" is a company that provides legal services, and the Act deals with such practices in its own part, Part 2.7. What matters to a client is the phrase "legal practitioner director". It refers to a director of the company who is also an Australian legal practitioner, and section 7 treats that person as a principal of the practice, on the same footing as a partner in a firm or a sole practitioner. The company structure does not remove the lawyer from the picture. It names which lawyer is answerable.
The same section gives a wide meaning to "associate" of a law practice. It takes in the practice's lawyers in their various roles and also its employees and agents. That breadth matters later in this guide, because the Law Society's compensation fund for dishonest dealings with trust money is framed around the acts of associates, not only of the principal.
For a client, the useful question is simple: who is the principal responsible for my file, and is that person on the register? In a large practice the answer may be a partner or director the client never meets. In a small one it may be the person who answers the phone. Either is normal.
Related readWhat a conveyancing solicitor does, from first call to settlementAccredited specialists in property law
The practising certificate is the floor. Above it, the Queensland Law Society runs a specialist accreditation program, through which solicitors can be recognised as accredited specialists in a defined field. Property law is one of the fields the Society assesses, and it publishes assessment guidelines for the property law program each year it runs.
Accreditation is a Law Society credential, earned through the Society's own assessment process and kept up afterwards: the Society's material has a section on maintaining accreditation once it is granted. The Society also publishes a page for the community explaining why a client might choose an accredited specialist and how to find one.
Two cautions keep the credential in proportion.
First, it is optional. The Act does not require a solicitor to be accredited in property law to act in a sale or purchase, and a great many solicitors who have spent whole careers in conveyancing have never applied. The absence of the title says nothing against anyone.
Second, "specialist" has a particular meaning in this setting. A firm may truthfully say it concentrates on conveyancing without any of its solicitors holding the Law Society accreditation. A client who cares about the distinction can ask whether the term is being used in the accredited sense, and can check the answer against the Society's own listing.
Where accreditation tends to earn its keep is in the unusual file: a purchase with a complicated title, a development site, a contract with heavily negotiated special conditions. For a standard house or unit on the standard contract, it is one factor among several.
Related readWho may do conveyancing in Queensland, and why it takes a law firmWhat the Legal Services Commission does
Queensland separates the body that licenses solicitors from the body that receives complaints about them. The second is the Legal Services Commission.
In its information for complainants, the Commission says it was established in 2004 and continues under the Legal Profession Act 2007. It describes itself as the sole body responsible for receiving complaints about the conduct of lawyers, law practice employees and unlawful operators, and for managing the investigation of those complaints. The last category is worth noting: someone doing legal work without being entitled to falls within the Commission's field too.
The service is free of charge to the person complaining.
The Commission is equally clear about what sits outside its powers, and knowing the limits saves disappointment.
- It does not decide negligence. A claim that a lawyer's work fell below the required standard and caused loss is a civil action, and the Commission states that this is a matter for the courts.
- It may not be able to help with a dispute over the amount of legal costs. A client who wishes to dispute costs must apply to the court for a costs assessment, a procedure the Commission says carries strict time limits.
- It cannot give legal advice, cannot intervene in court proceedings, and cannot deal with the underlying legal issue between a client and someone else.
In other words, the Commission looks at how a lawyer behaved. It is not a second opinion on the transaction.
How a complaint is handled, in general terms
The Commission publishes its process as a flowchart of four stages: assessing the complaint, investigation, a decision either to dismiss or to make a discipline application, and disciplinary proceedings. Most matters never travel the whole length of it.
At the first stage the Commission assesses what it has received and may ask the complainant for more information. It then decides whether the complaint is one it can accept, and tells the complainant if it cannot be dealt with.
If the complaint is accepted and an investigation is appropriate, the Commission carries it out. A complaint about a barrister may be referred to the Bar Association of Queensland for investigation. The Commission says it aims to complete most investigations within six to nine months, and that serious or complex allegations can take longer.
Along the way the Commission may informally help the two sides reach an agreed outcome. It is careful to add that the Commissioner has no power to decide how a dispute should be resolved or to impose a solution. An agreed outcome is exactly that: agreed.
A complaint body is not a complaint record
The existence of a complaints process says nothing about any individual solicitor. Its value to a client choosing a lawyer is knowing that an independent, free channel exists, what it can look at, and what it leaves to the courts.
Many concerns never need the Commission at all. A file that has gone quiet, a bill that is higher than expected or a letter that was not answered is usually resolved by raising it with the principal of the practice, which is one reason to know who that is from the start.
What the engagement documents should tell you
When a law practice takes on a conveyancing file it sends the client a set of engagement documents before or as the work begins. The Legal Profession Act regulates legal costs, and the Commission's reference to court costs assessment shows there is a formal route for testing a bill. This guide does not set out the costs rules themselves. What it can offer is the list of questions a careful client expects the documents to answer, each of which connects to something described above.
- Who is acting. The name of the law practice as recorded, and the solicitor responsible for the file. Both can be checked against the register.
- Who is the principal. The partner, sole practitioner or legal practitioner director who answers for the practice.
- What the work covers. A purchase or a sale, of which property, and what is outside the scope, such as tax advice or a dispute.
- How the fee is worked out. A fixed sum or another basis, and what would cause it to change.
- What is paid to others. Search fees, registration fees and similar outlays are separate from the professional fee. A reader comparing two quotes should compare like with like.
- How money is handled. Whether the practice will hold money in trust for the transaction, and how the client will be told what has been received and paid.
- How concerns are raised. Who inside the practice to speak to first, and what rights the client has if a concern about costs or conduct is not resolved.
A document that answers these seven questions plainly is doing its job. One that leaves a question open is easily fixed: ask for the answer in writing before signing.
A sensible order for the checks
None of this is a long exercise. A reader who wants a routine can follow this one.
Start with the name of the solicitor who will be responsible for the file, and search it in the Law Society's Register of Solicitors. Confirm a current entry.
Next, look at the business. Is it a sole practitioner, a partnership or an incorporated legal practice, and who is its principal? The firm's own letterhead and engagement documents normally say.
If the purchase is unusual, ask whether anyone at the practice holds the Law Society's accreditation in property law, and treat the answer as information, not as a test.
Read the engagement documents against the seven questions above, and ask about anything they leave unanswered.
Finally, note where the Legal Services Commission sits in the system and what it does. Few clients ever need it, and a file opened on a clear footing is the best reason why.
The checks do not rank one practice above another, and they are not meant to. They confirm that the person about to handle a contract, a deposit and a title is who they say they are, working in a structure the client understands.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
