Ask HN: Are lawyers with SWE backgrounds useful? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are lawyers with SWE backgrounds useful?

3 pointsgaldosdi7 comments

I've been a software engineer for over a decade with strong CS fundamentals and varied experience across stacks and industries, competent across all the major focuses of the job (coding, mentoring, requirements gathering, project management, troubleshooting, ops, politics, etc).

If I retrained as a lawyer, I know there's basically no way to justify the expense and time switching to a career that isn't really any better in material terms.

But I wonder if there's any niche where a lawyer who also is the rare one with such a strong SWE background could somehow be extra useful somewhere in the industry where the legal/software worlds meet.

I still wouldn't expect the material rewards / worklife balance to be any better and perhaps worse. But maybe with such a valuable niche, if it exists, perhaps someone in my situation could at least eke out a career that is especially satisfying, doing valuable work that not a lot of people can do?

I just have always loved the law for the same reason as code. Systems of rules are fascinating, and the older I get the more I'm bored by the one that governs bytes and more fascinated by the one that governs humans. I'm a human myself.

I probably won't do it anyway because the practical considerations are just too great, but I'm still really fascinated at least hypothetically by these questions.

Does anyone have any thoughts / experience on this? Or any others on the connection between law and software engineering.

Ha

I was a dev for a few years, went to law school, worked in law for a bit, and have now switched back to being a software engineer (thank God).

And I am not the only person I know with backgrounds in both--there are dozens of us!

Feel free to reach out to me if you'd like to chat. samier_saeed@protonmail.com

Heh! This is why I seriously doubt I'll do it-- I foresee just switching back as well, three years and $200,000 lighter!

Perhaps a better question would have been, as a SWE how can I get involved with interesting problems relating to law? Maybe working implementing tax law related software? I did work on a cloud billing system and found that aspect interesting.

> Maybe working implementing tax law related software?

Most people wouldn't find this to involve interesting problems, but to each their own lol

Check out the Freelaw Project, they operate a couple open source things with which you can get involved. I have been a contributor there myself. Can invite you to the Slack if you find it interesting

In the U.S., you may have run across Eugene Volkoh[1] on the news, as a constitutional law expert. He was first famous (well, in our circles) as a software developer; he and his father sold a really popular utility for HP3000 minicomputers that _everyone_ used. Always thought it was a shame such a good engineer decided to become a lawyer. :) On a side note, one of the best SWEs I ever worked with is now a professor of Economics.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Volokh

You could be an intellectual property lawyer if you know something about technology.

Agreed - more specifically, a SWE background could be helpful for patents. I can't tell you how many times I've worked with patent lawyers who don't understand software.

I don't think actual dev skills are that useful, but solid knowledge of the industry itself, which devs tend to have, is indispensible.

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