Catch us on a boastful day, and we might describe our work allocation solution, Capacity, as a "game-changer" for law firms.

We don't mean we want to force change on law firms. We mean that we can help your firm manage its work and its talent better, without your people even feeling a change happening.

And the best analogy we can find for how this works is to look to the humble football (soccer) pitch. So let's kick off with a short detour through the history of sports surfaces.

Glorious mud

So, until fairly recently, football pitches were torn to muddy shreds for most of the year.

Playing the ball along the turf could see it slow to a stop in a quagmire, or bobble to the opposition after hitting a lump of earth.

As a result, a distinct footballing culture emerged. The long switch of play, the upfield hoof, the set piece, the long shot, and the towering header reigned supreme.

Players didn’t have the opportunity to develop the zippy, close ball control we see today, because they simply couldn’t count on the ball moving as they predicted it would.

That all changed roughly 30 years ago, with the advent of a new, technological approach to groundskeeping.

Turfgrass science now studies the ‘relative ball rebound’ and ‘volumetric soil moisture content’ of grass, comparing different species, at different lengths, and in different combinations with artificial surfaces, to hone in on the perfect pitch.

Sir Alex Ferguson, no less, reckons it’s this development more than any other that we have to thank for the quality of football, and footballers, in the modern era.

Enter Capacity

We think it’s the same with law firm work allocation – that changing the playing field on which lawyers perform can have a fundamental impact, not only on their performance, but on the entire culture of the firm.

When work’s assigned in an unstructured way, it’s like the muddy pitch of yesteryear. Everyone’s still performing, and performing as well as they can under the circumstances, but errors are more frequent and your people are forced into sub-optimal patterns of work and play.

Structure work allocation, and your entire team can thrive, ruling out errors, developing new skills, and competing at a higher intensity. You’re not changing the rules of the game, but you’re optimising the platform on which they perform.

Best of all, this change happens organically and painlessly, as more of your people start to use and benefit from our tool.

Introducing a pitch as smooth as a snooker table to a 1960s football squad would feel to them like a radical change. But improving the pitch gradually, and training on it every day, would feel seamless – and those new skills and improved techniques would emerge naturally, rather than being forced upon the team.

As former lawyers ourselves, we know how difficult it is to encourage lawyers young and old to adopt new practices. With that in mind, we've designed Capacity to be easy to use with no training whatsoever, and far quicker to use than drafting an email.

Finally, when we talk about fairness, equality, and social mobility, it’s no wonder we talk about a level playing field.

Give that your lawyers, and they’ll stick around to develop into the well-rounded, engaged professionals your firm cares deeply about.

Learn more

We believe that firms thrive when they give their talent the platform upon which they can shine.

Learn more about our product and how it can help your firm thrive in our blog pieces on hybrid work, collaboration, and retention – or book a call with our team to get your own private tour of the product. We'd love to show you how it works.