Thanks everyone for your comments. My main point in raising these points was to start a dialog about what is and is not acceptable to charge for and to raise awareness of these items for startups looking to take on a lawyer and I think I've definitely done that! Many (but not all) of the points I raised in this post were sourced from an analysis that my friend performed of a startup's legal bills from two separate silicon valley law firms.
If your friend knows of instances where Silicon Valley firms (1) double-billed travel time or (2) billed as you stated in the value billing section, consider reporting those to the CA State Bar. These are ethical violations.
