Comment by mkramlich | Hacker News Reader

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Comment by mkramlich | Hacker News Reader

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two words to explain the law firms reaction:

billable hours

*credentials/disclaimer: I'm a programmer and I worked as a clerk for law firms back in college too.

The hours for this task weren't billed.

He means that the law firm makes money by billing hours; hence if you take less time to do a task, the firm earns less money.

Although in theory they could just up their hourly rate, if their hours are more productive, now.

Yeah, I'm the author and I know what billable hours are. My hours here weren't being billed out to the client.

Surely people aren't paying a lawyers hourly rate for them to cut and paste around spreadsheets?

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