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Let's leave the last word to Richard Susskind's 'Tomorrow's Lawyers':

"Hourly billing is an institutionalised disincentive to efficiency. It rewards lawyers who take longer to complete tasks than their more organised colleagues, and it penalises legal advisers who operate swiftly and efficiently. All too often, the number of hours spent by a law firm bears little relation to the value that is brought. A junior lawyer who expends 50 hours on a task can sometimes provide much less value than half-an-hour of the work of a seasoned practitioner (drawing on his or her lifetime of experience)."