That man is a genius that improved his work productivity and he can spend his time improving himself for the benefit of his employer! If he is filling his employer’s output quotas so he has done absolutely nothing wrong.
Let me put it to you this way with a rhetorical question. If a manufacturer found a way to create a valuable commodity product at 1/10 the cost of its competitors is that company then obligated to pass all the savings to its customers or reduce its price is just enough just enough to gain market share?
he may or may not be a genius, but he is using company computers to cheat his employer using a product he produced on company time, which, under intellectual property rights, belongs to the employer. Not clear in the article if he’s also using company time and computers to run his little video games but that’s no different than spending the day making personal phone calls.
Otoh, he could disclose his work product to the employer, and he could get a bonus or promotion for automating what appears to be a very menial job. Or he could get fired when the company does their annual IT forensic audit by independent sources, and make it onto the blacklist every FORTUNE 1000 HR dept has and kill any future career moves (and yes, you can bet your bippy they do keep lists). One can be sure that every law firm HR person that reads the article will now be on the hunt. Ripping off a law firm doesn’t seem a good risk reward scenario.