One office is drowning while another has capacity

The argument for multiple offices includes resilience: when one is busy, another can absorb work. That only functions if someone can see both, and in most firms the view stops at the office boundary.

Local optimisation

Each office head manages their own load competently. Nobody manages the aggregate, so a firm can simultaneously turn work away in one city and have associates underused in another.

Comparable units

Matter counts are not comparable — a conveyance and a commercial dispute are different animals. Something crude but consistent, such as open matters weighted by type, is enough to make the conversation possible.

Routing at intake

The cheapest moment to balance load is when a matter arrives, not after it is allocated and a relationship has formed. That requires the intake decision to see capacity, which means capacity has to be visible before the matter is opened.