Want higher profits per partner? Start with your capacity planning

Running a profitable law firm starts with one simple question: are we using our capacity smartly enough? If you align your legal staffing with workload more effectively, you get more out of each day—without overloading your team or leaving people idle. The key? Smart capacity management.

What is capacity management?

Simply put: making sure your people and their billable hours match the incoming work. Not too much, not too little. That way, everyone stays productive and your clients stay happy.

Four building blocks to stay in control

1. Forecast workload
Look at trends in client requests and planning. It helps you prevent sudden overloads—or long slow periods.

2. Allocate people smartly
Who has availability? And who’s best suited for the job? Match skills and availability to keep your planning tight and efficient.

3. Monitor utilisation
How many of the available hours are billable? A high utilisation rate is great, but don’t let it turn into chronic overwork.

4. Scale up flexibly
Sometimes your in-house team isn’t enough. Then it’s smart to scale up with freelance lawyers, smart tools or external partners.

Practical tips to improve your legal resourcing

Use tech
Legal practice software helps with planning, time tracking and capacity insights.

Keep developing your team
Lawyers with broad skills can jump in more easily where they’re needed.

Evaluate regularly
Are people overworked or underutilised? Use data and common sense to adjust.

Stay flexible
Hybrid working helps absorb peaks and dips in workload.

Collaborate smartly
With the right freelance lawyers on call, you stay agile while keeping quality high.

Want to get more out of your team?

We help legal teams build flexible capacity. Want to talk through your current setup? Reach out to Maarten Hagen at maarten@lawyerlinq.com or +31 6 24 24 84 35.