When a buyer selects a title company, should you make sure that a lawyer will be conducting the settlement?
The short answer is no. In fact, there is a woman who began her career conducting settlement about the time I began to sell houses. And without the benefit of a law degree, she has probably done more settlements than any of the Washington title 
attorneys. In fact, she will be settling one of my listings at the end of this month, and I am impressed by how thorough she has been.
Still, when it comes to settlements, I am a bit of a lawyer snob. Perhaps it is because so many of my own clients are attorneys. And maybe I'm influenced by the fact that many of my transactions over the years have been complicated, either by the details of the sale itself or by complications caused by one or more of the parties having questions or issues that do indeed require legal advice.
Also, the two companies I use most often make themselves available, not just around the settlement table, but they are a phone call away for those times when, as an agent, I don't want to find myself giving my clients legal advice.
Having said that, I would much rather have a non-attorney with a few decades of experience doing nothing but settlement over a lawyer who specializes in drunk driving, divorce or practices before one of the area's federal regulatory agencies.
So there is no right answer to this one - except that whoever you use, lawyer or not, should do real estate settlement as the primary part of his or her practice.
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