Comment by mumblemumble

Some legal work product is reasonably fungible, especially at the level of corporate law.

What I think that a lot of management type folks fail to realize, though, is that both the quality of knowledge workers' output and the rate at which they produce it tends to drop precipitously when they are tired. I wouldn't be at all surprised if a lawyer who works 35 hour weeks can get more done in a given calendar period than one who works 90 hour weeks. Big name law firms, though, bill by the hour, and, even if they share this conviction, they know that their clients went to business school, and have therefore been trained not to understand it.