In the legal industry more than most, time is money. Law firms thrive when their talent is working productively on billable tasks, with as many fee-earners as possible working at around 100% utilisation. Achieving something close to this ideal state requires addressing utilisation imbalances, often referred to as the utilisation gap.

Understanding the Utilisation Gap

A utilisation gap occurs when there is an imbalance in the workload distribution among fee-earners. This disparity can lead to some associates being overworked while others are underutilised, ultimately affecting the firm’s productivity and profitability.

Smoothing utilisation is the process of balancing each fee-earner’s workload so that the gap between the busiest and least busy lawyers is reduced. It’s a key performance indicator for resource managers, and it’s something that our algorithmic, structured work allocation solution is designed to help law firms achieve.

How Capacity Can Help

Capacity is built to tackle your utilisation gap head-on. Our innovative algorithm is crafted to distribute work evenly across legal teams by prioritising underutilised fee-earners over those who are overburdened.

This rapidly reduces scenarios where work is distributed to someone who’s already at capacity when someone equally qualified is twiddling their thumbs across the office. This rebalancing can have a profound impact on some of the areas that law firms care about the most.

Benefits of Smoothing Utilisation

Increased Profitability

By making it simple for your work distributors to locate the most available talent in your teams, Capacity ensures workflows are tackled as productively as possible. Plus, when skills development is shared, the work’s delivered faster and to a higher standard, and the costs of burnout and idle associates are both greatly reduced.

Client Satisfaction

With utilisation smoothed, clients experience fewer delays in the completion of work. By ensuring fee-earners are rarely over capacity, Capacity can also be used to reduce prices for clients, delivering better quality work at a better price.

Enhanced Wellbeing

Associate wellbeing can take a knock both when they’re overworked or when they’re overlooked. By redistributing work more evenly, Capacity protects your lawyers from work-related burnout while also keeping underutilised associates from feeling undervalued and disengaged.

Skills Development

By distributing opportunities more evenly, Capacity helps all your attorneys develop the skills they need to thrive. This approach fosters a healthier and more collaborative work environment, which is crucial for maintaining high levels of job satisfaction and developing the talented lawyers your firm champions.

Smarter Forecasting

Your business professionals need good data to ensure targets are met and work flows smoothly through your teams. Capacity processes all relevant associate data behind the scenes, so that your work allocators are better able to review utilisation and spot availability snags in the future.

Rapid Reintegration

Whether they’re returnees or laterals, some associates arrive in the office with a completely empty in-tray. Capacity offers your firm a simple way to get them up to speed from day one, prioritising them for tasks that might otherwise go to busier fee-earners.

Real-world Impact

In conversations with law firm leaders and resource management professionals, we've identified several scenarios where utilisation imbalances eat into productivity and profits. For instance, an associate working excessively on a project might actually generate less profit for the firm than if the workload were shared among two associates.

By making smooth, even utilisation the norm, Capacity ensures that no one is needlessly overworked while others are in need of more hours to meet their targets. Best of all, the utilisation gap is a simple KPI to measure, including on Capacity. That means the benefits of using Capacity can be tracked from day one, as each of your fee-earners begins to shoulder the optimal amount of work.

Join the Next Generation of Work Allocation

At Capacity, we’re helping to build the future of work allocation in law firms. Our system ensures tasks are distributed fairly and evenly, enhancing both individual and firm-wide performance.

Discover more about how Capacity can transform your law firm by exploring our website, following us on LinkedIn, or by contacting us directly.