Re:Start-Up Legal Forms Library
by timwiseman on Sunday August 09, 2009 @12:39AM
(#750332)
I would thus imagine that good logical thinking ability and a strong level of attention to detail are the main common factors shared between good developers and good lawyers (at least good business lawyers).
Out of curiosity, do you think there are a lot of parallels between the two fields or just those?
To put the same thing another way, do you think that someone who was a good developer could become a good lawyer and vice versa?
I have seen many serial entrepreneurs (who originally were developers) become very adept at the legal aspects of dealmaking. From this, I believe that cross-overs would not be too hard, but this assumes that one is drawn to things that lawyers do.
At the advanced level, the most important trait by far is good judgment that assures strategic thinking. If a lawyer lacks this, your deal will be in trouble. I assume your development project would also be in trouble as well without this trait.
Re:Start-Up Legal Forms Library
by timwiseman on Monday August 10, 2009 @01:41PM
(#753510)
Thank you.
Clients will come in with a sense of what they want to accomplish but may have no idea how to do it. Or they have a pre-conceived approach to an issue that may not be accurate. A good lawyer will listen to the goals, get a good understanding of the key elements involved, and have a good (almost intuitive) sense of what it takes to navigate the legal and practical challenges to get to the goals efficiently. A poor lawyer will throw around legalese, and may pull even good templates out of a drawer, but will have no eye for either strategy or detail - the result will be a mess.
I would thus imagine that good logical thinking ability and a strong level of attention to detail are the main common factors shared between good developers and good lawyers (at least good business lawyers).
So, yes, I would agree with your conclusion about the correlation in thinking between lawyers and developers. Of course, in both cases, experience helps a lot as well but the key skills must there from the start in order to succeed.