[itsmeste]

I'm slowly getting into law while working my 16th year in tech. It's about the same salary, and instead of reading books worth of technical docs, you read books worth of legislation. The good part is that legislation isn't changing as frequently as technical docs, so you're not required to invest as much of your spare time to stay up to date as a SSE does.

[m0llusk]

Hiring in the law sector has been trending down for some years now. Law is one of the only sectors of the economy that has a thriving market for services that help lawyers get out of legal work. It can be good for some people, but it can also eat people alive and cause burnout in ways similar to tech. Would very much recommend caution when considering this path.

[q-base]

How did you make the shift? I have actually had a lot of the same thoughts. It seems like a lot of the abilities and "thoroughness" needed in tech, would be transferable to law. I can only say that I spent quite a lot of time reading legal documents as part of technical and security-related due diligence and my background reading specifications and planning software architecture, is directly transferable.

[vertigolimbo]

Did you use your technical skills as leverage for your career in law? I heard that it's very common for ex-developers to work on IP, patents, etc.

[D13Fd]

Law is an excellent fit for tech skills IMO, if you also have a personality that fits the kind of law you want to do.

This is true on multiple levels. Legal documents and briefs work like code in some ways, and the core function of the practice of law is to apply rigorous logic and rules in an accessible way (although people often disagree as to the result). It tends to feel natural to a coder.

It’s also true because tech skills make the practice of law easier. Like most office work, you can often write scripts to automate things and be an absolute hero to your coworkers. In litigation, at least, some career paths also involve quite a bit of data management, and your ability to handle a moderately complex excel spreadsheet will pay dividends. Beyond that, in patent litigation or even some contract or copyright litigation, you’re going to be dealing with “technical experts”—and with a solid tech background you will often run circles around them.

Honestly many of the scariest, sharpest lawyers in some parts of law have tech backgrounds.

[itsmeste]

I found synergies in many cases. As D13Fd said, legislation is very similar to code, with many intertwined sections, references and conditions. You'll need a sense for detail if you want to find ways to push the right of your client through court.

Similar to the backend/frontend specialization in coding, a lawyer may specialize in a certain sector. Reading through the legislation is quite similar to reading through a legacy codebase, and writing notices is somewhat similar to structuring and crafting new code, which will always be based on the same 'framework' (if you work in a single country).

Especially in cases regarding data protection, as a SSE you'll always have a good advantage over many of your peers, as you'll easily identify nonsense and can often provide in-depth investigations.