[jroes]

I like the idea of niching down for a use case, but I've never met a lawyer I thought had the time or energy to devote to learning programming. I'm also having trouble understanding how a lawyer might use their programming skill to improve their daily lives. It seems to me that other folks on a lawyer's staff would be more likely to be interested in this subject and use it to the firm's benefit.

[VanL]

There are lots of things you can use code for as a lawyer, if you just think about it as "automating stuff." I wrote custom code all the time when I was at the law firm (and still do, but I'm in a more technical role now).

It was fun to take something where hordes of associates were being used as slightly smarter computers and automate it - there were several times when people were amazed that I turned out a properly formatted in-depth diligence report about multi-hundred-patent portfolios within a couple of days.

In my spare time, I built a natural language processing + graph analysis tool to help look for patent prior art. I spoke about it at PyCon - see <http://pyvideo.org/video/425/pycon-2011--how-to-kill-a-paten....

Right now I use an internal Github instance to manage CCLAs at Rackspace, and its just a matter of time until I automate some more stuff here.

[mountainair]

Lawyers don't necessarily need to code to improve their own lives - but they MUST learn to code to improve their relationships with their clients.

If there is any aspect of programming involved in any contract or lawsuit (which is becoming the norm), the lawyer absolutely must have at least a vague grasp of the tech to be effective. Too many lawyers and judges are just utterly perplexed, and it leads to bad law that makes things more difficult for everyone down the road.

Even the most basic understanding of programming would be so so helpful, if only because it makes the world of computers slightly less alien to your average legal practitioner.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

I doubt that.

I'm negotiating a contract with a software subcontractor and I had to involve our legal department. The lawyer I'm dealing with quite clearly understands software (speaks knowledgeably about OSS, although I don't remember if he's actually a programmer), but I can't think of a single case where programming knowledge would have been useful. Instead, I'm the outsider, because everything that comes up for discussion is an issue of Contract Law and nothing specific to Software.

[rjtavares]

Programming is like cooking. You don't have to know it, but it comes in handy and you can impress your friends with it. Just don't thing you can open a restaurant just because you make a great risotto.

[adelevie]

Check out https://permafrast.herokuapp.com. OP built this as well, and it makes it really easy to read cases without signing into Lexis, Westlaw, or, well ... anything.

Just one of many examples of how lawyers can use tech to make their day jobs easier.