Pam Woldow Profiled - ABA Legal Rebel series

Firms of all sizes generally have a laser focus on profits. But if you ask partners how much a specific filing costs, most have no idea, says Pamela H. Woldow, a consultant whose work targets alternative billing and social media presence.

A principal with the legal managing consultant group Altman Weil in Newtown Square, Pa., Woldow says she's posed the filing-cost question to 600 law firms. The example she usually gives is a summary judgment motion in a two-party case with $100,000 at issue. (This isn’t a trick question, but the answer differs depending on issues like the firm’s size and the jurisdictional rules.)

"They don't know what it costs because they don't care. In their own billing system they don't track by the item they're creating or the service they're providing," Woldow says. "General counsel are consumers and they need to buy a motion. They need a result and a product."

Read the full profile and listen to an audio interview...