[VanL]

Interesting - I would be interested in chatting with you too. I am a lawyer at a Big law firm. One of the things that I have been doing (which clients love) is writing software to automate or enhance parts of what I do.

[sunchild]

I used to do this, too. It drove me crazy that my firm owned my work, though. Perhaps you have a more favorable arrangement with your employer?

[VanL]

I made an arrangement immediately when I started. I told them I do code on the side, and that I had other people that I worked with on that code.

They agreed that they pay me for legal work, not for code. Thus, the tools I build are mine, but the analysis and output of those tools may be theirs if I am using the tools for their benefit.

[ajtaylor]

That is an incredible deal! I would imagine any employee outside the legal profession would be hard pressed to win this sort of concession.