

Ask HN: Lawyers who left to 'hack', what has your career trajectory been like? - burritofanatic

Were you eventually pulled into a more business role in a company? Do you keep your license active?<p>I read about this transition from time to time, but I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;ve met someone else in real life who&#x27;s done this to ask.
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trcollinson
A bit of background. I come from a technical and business family. My father
has flipped between owning businesses and being a software engineer since the
60's. So I grew up with coding in my life. I started to hack on things in
elementary school and I had a number of professional jobs coding in high
school and college.

I didn't want to be like my father, he was boring, or so my teenage brain
thought. I can do so much better! I am the man. I will become a lawyer! I was
accepted almost instantly and went to law school. Very quickly I realized
something: I hated it.

I learned a lot, I did very well, but ultimately I decided that I actually
like coding and my dad wasn't as boring as I thought. I never took the bar
exam and now I joke in interviews about it.

Since that point I have started or have been involved in a number of technical
businesses. I am known for my technical prowess and I am often the highest or
one of the highest code contributors to projects I start or am working on.
However, I also get pulled into business discussions. I have no problems
reading over contracts and giving them a first pass. I am smart enough to know
when to call in an actual law firm (which is generally early and often), and I
believe this gives me a distinct advantage over other technical founders and
workers. A lot of technical people believe that they know everything and can
quickly learn whatever they need to succeed. Thus, they read over contracts
and fall prey to successful lawyers who are very good at writing rock solid
contracts and agreements. I know when to call for help, and my partners,
employers, and investors appreciate that.

If you are a lawyer now, then I would imagine your experience will be
different. But I do believe a legal background (not to mention the logic and
rational reasoning portions of a law degree) will serve you well. The only
person who will pull you into a business role will be you. Good luck!

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impassebreaker
There are more than you might expect. (It also depends on what you mean by
"hack.")

Take a look at [http://lawyersongithub.com](http://lawyersongithub.com). This
is a list of lawyers with github accounts. Now, having a GH account doesn't
make you "hacker" or professional programmer, but a couple of people on it
have left law to focus on programming. I know several other lawyers not listed
there who left firms to focus on software development.

You'll find a range of experience. There are lawyers who were programmers
first, went to law school, and then went back to programming. Others had
skills before law school or learned while practicing law and have incorporated
into their practices, to varying degrees.

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macmac
This is a very interesting question. The only person I know of who has done
this is David Pollak of Scala Lift fame
[http://blog.goodstuff.im/about](http://blog.goodstuff.im/about)

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johnzim
Not sure what the U.S. situation is like but in the UK my transition was
pretty perfect in terms of my professional happiness. That said, it was pretty
weird for a barrister to be working cases during the day and then coding at
night so I'm not sure I'm a good example - coding was something I'd just
always 'done' since I was a kid.

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tejasm
The girls from priorilegal.com are lawyers and they're pretty regulars at HN.

