Do you really believe that researching substance and procedure from the bottom up with no knowledge of the area of law at all is the same thing as reviewing standard procedures in a particular stage of litigation?

Sigh, dude, you appear to be a lawyer, and, based on that, I'd bloody well hope you know that you are, once you practice the bar, qualified to practice any area of law that you are not specifically required to have an extra license to practice, e.g. patent law.

The prohibition on unreasonable fees has fuck-all to do with charing for learning - yes - even new procedure, such as local rules, administrative law, even substantive law - don't you remember good old "ALE"? The "reasonable fees" has to do with actually performing work for time, not charging absurd flat rates for pushing through boilerplates, accepting fees for literally no work or charging rates that would be considered highway robbery by any standard.

Do you really believe that researching substance and procedure from the bottom up with no knowledge of the area of law at all is the same thing as reviewing standard procedures in a particular stage of litigation?

No, but I do remember covering expclitly fucking this when studying for the MBE half a decade ago and the bar shortly thereafter.

Lawyers charge for time. If you are editing commas, making powerpoints, shredding paper, counting eggs (yeah, that was a thing, long story), summing columns in a spreadsheet, or writing shakespearean quality briefs - you are paying my fucking hourly.

I notice, btw, you work for the EFF - meaning you don't bill. That's an impressive position (I support your work, btw, and am actually on the cooperating attorneys list) but you are just off on this count. If a client comes to me, says that he wants me to structure his estate and execute a trust, and I explain that I am a corp and IP lawyer, and it will require a lot of time for me to learn this shit which he will be paying for - the disciplinary inquiry stops there. That is simply the end of it. The same if I were to defend a capital murder case or perform import/export regulatory compliance.