He isn't just "in publishing", he frequently writes about legal topics for the Verge. For example, he covered the Google v. Oracle and Apple v. Samsung trials in great detail. However, if you're curious as to why he made the career choices he did, you can always ask him directly: https://twitter.com/reckless

I have no reason at this point to doubt his judgment, as he is clearly quite a capable individual, as he has managed to become the managing editor of one of the top tech news sites in an industry bursting with competition and upstarts.