Dinsmore Finance Committee and Intellectual Property Department Chair Josh Lorentz recently spoke with The American Lawyer for an article about how law firms and their clients are managing increasing costs and rates as associate salaries increase along with inflation. An excerpt is below.

Josh Lorentz, a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl who chairs the firm’s finance committee, noted that rate increases aren’t just accepted unconditionally. They’re the result of a communication and negotiation process, he said, and one reason firms may be posting such high realization rates is they’re already doing a fairly good job of communicating their costs to clients.

Law firms that come up with alternative fee arrangements and that also successfully use analytics—such as in forecasting how to staff a matter so more high-priced timekeepers are only working segments where they’re really needed—will be better situated to make a case for their rates, he said.

“For those firms that are willing to do it, they’ll rise to the top,” Lorentz said. “And the firms that don’t want to be creative and don’t want to be innovative, their clients will find firms that will be.”

Read the full article here.