The Lily Bergman Story

I  t’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention. When it comes to Lily Bergman, a desire for more time with clients, more efficient modes of operation, and smaller paper footprints have proven equal motivators.

As operations director at Goosmann Rose Colvard & Cramer, P.A. (GRCC), in Asheville, N.C., Bergman has earned a reputation for blowing up paper-centric processes and personalizing software applications in ways that have driven ROI.

The improvements she’s made during her short time in the industry are being marketed to settlement firms throughout the country.

“It all started because I noticed the need for a shift to be able to have the time to talk to people,” recalls Lily, 30. “Not just being a transitional part of [the transaction], but being a pillar for someone to lean on. Having that capacity, the time in my day, to provide a positive client experience, that’s what drove me to seek a streamlined process model, chock full of efficiencies.”

An unlikely introduction to the industry

Twenty-twelve was a particularly trying time for Bergman. In the months prior to receiving a communications degree from UCLA (to pair with a double major in statistics), Bergman transitioned from caring for her sick father with Leukemia to settling his estate following his death.

“I was the administrator of his estate. I jumped in with both feet into understanding estate law,” Lily remembers. “You don’t really have time to mourn when you have to take care of multiple layers of estate matters.”

She also moved to North Carolina from California that year to be closer to family. Bergman worked at three restaurants while completing law school applications. It was during a shift at one of these eateries that she was served with a career redirection.

GRCC Partner John R. Rose and his wife, Jill Westmorland Rose, were dining at the restaurant. He noticed something particular about Bergman.

“He noticed that I was strategically planning my steps in-between each table, which was just my way of maximizing the time I could spend with each guest,” Lily says. “To this day, I have no idea what gave me away and how he noticed.”

Rose encouraged Bergman to apply for an open courier position in the firm’s post-closing department. She interviewed and was hired on the spot.

“It’s pretty much the story of someone coming in at what others may say is the ultimate entry level position and working their way up,” she says. “But I personally don’t say that, because as the courier I had the opportunity to meet our market and become more familiar with our role in the settlement industry as a part of the closing process, and so for me, that position was a professional game-changer. It was a true opportunity to professionally pivot.

“So I started building my knowledge base from the back end of the closing process. I started learning what it meant to be in residential and commercial real estate law,” she points out. “What the settlement process was for an attorney state versus a title state. I learned that from understanding the errors and issues that would come up that would need to be resolved by producing a final title opinion.”

She also learned how inefficient the process was. Having worked her way through college, Bergman already understood that if you were not efficient, you wouldn’t be able to get through what needed to be done in the time you had. Holding two jobs, caring for her father, and maintaining high grades to keep her scholarships (3.75 GPA) had taught her that life lesson.

Putting efficiency into action

Bergman didn’t simply point out inefficiencies she saw; she began incorporating streamlining efforts into the post-closing department.

“I started understanding how to create custom documents to streamline the process of producing a final title opinion,” she says. “And understanding that if you didn’t need to print something and send someone a hard copy, if you just emailed it, then not only are you saving paper – which became the overall environmental initiative that we have marketed as a firm – but it is clearly easier to get more done.”

When she found herself bored, she volunteered to help other team members with their tasks.

“That’s what started the transition of me adopting and learning and performing almost every single position at this firm,” she says.

Her efforts were noticed. By 2017, three years after joining GRCC, she had worked her way up to closing paralegal. But she realized she was working harder, not smarter, and wasn’t enjoying the job as much because of the data entry.

She also was spending less time with clients, which was one of her favorite aspects of the job.

“There was this one client who would call me every single week about her seller document preparation, which had been finalized for over a year. But she was an elderly client who I knew was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s. Some people would get frustrated by these calls as a nuisance, but I didn’t mind,” she says. “I love the opportunity to take care of a client, even in a rare instance, where a file had been completed for over a year, such as this.”

It was sometime during 2017 that she accepted the assignment of building the firm’s custom closing platform on top of SoftPro Select. And just how did that work out?

“We have the highest level of automation of any SoftPro customer. We have the ability to close 2.5 files more, which comps at a 30-percent growth rate with system enhancements,” she explains. “We’ve reduced our paper footprint by 83 percent, and are still looking to cut away at that.”

When not working an insane amount of hours, Bergman enjoys running and traveling, especially traveling to see music performances. She and her boyfriend, Josh, recently committed to traveling to a new place each month.

“Whether domestic or international, traveling more has been at the forefront of my mind lately,” she says. “I was raised to work hard and save money, but now know there must be a balance, and while remaining committed to my work, am excited to strike a balance with travel.”