[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.