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Who has switched from Software Engineering to Law? I'm considering it because of the lack of women in software engineering, and the multitudes in Law.

VanL 9y ago
I did, although I have never really given up engineering. Happy to help if you have questions. See my email in my profile.
- DannyBee 9y ago
  Don't trust this guy, now he just spends his time writing good books and speeches on open source law.
atwebb 9y ago
Well, Senator.... I'm neither a lawyer nor female, I am married to someone who is both and considered law initially (family of them). Are you missing working companionship or feel pushed out as a female in SW? Is there a specific type of law you'd like to go into, similar to medicine or even software, there's many many different paths. Best of luck, curious why you're looking at switching, I still flirt with it sometimes. Personally, I think the unreasonableness of some of the dealings/proceedings would irk me too much. It is very interesting though and the lawyers I know genuinely help better other people's lives, directly, while making a decent living.
grepthisab 9y ago
I did lightweight eng to law to heavyweight eng. It's really set me up (or at least changed peoples' perception of my skills) to do big picture stuff and make technical recommendations, like a CTO style role.
- peteypao 9y ago
  What's heavyweight eng?
  - grepthisab 9y ago
    Sorry I was trying to convey that I was more freelancing and working on personal projects/contributing to open source before law school, then I did purely law, then moved to SWE at a large SV company.
AskewEgret 9y ago
Unmentioned in the linked article is the fact that sitting for the Patent Bar exam with the USPTO does not require a law degree but instead it requires an engineering or hard science degree. If you like the idea of working with patents, trademarks and copyrights, you may wish to take that route. A lot of Computer Science programs at universities don't meet the requirements and you'd need to supplement your existing degree with laboratory chemistry, physics or biology classes at your local decently accredited college.
- richardfontana 9y ago
  Patent agents - the term for a non-lawyer who passes the patent bar exam and gets a USPTO registration - are qualified to directly file for patents, and tend to be used by law firms for other analytical tasks requiring technical expertise. However, they tend not to be involved in trademark work, nor copyright work, for a variety of reasons.
DannyBee 9y ago
I've done both. But really, i'd love to understand what the outcome you seek is. These are very different roles, and i'd love to understand what you are hoping to get out of law. Otherwise, feel free to ping me, happy to chat about it.
wmil 9y ago
The job market in Law is far worse than most people think. Make sure you do some serious research before you consider switching. It's easy to end up six figures in debt with no decent job prospects.
regulation_d 9y ago
I went the other direction. My advice would be to make pretty certain you know you'll like whichever area of law you want to go into. I thought I would like corporate law especially working with startups. I got a job doing pretty much exactly what I wanted to do, but I didn't actually like it and only practiced for a year. In my limited, purely anecdotal experience, comparing my developer friends and my lawyer friends, a much larger percentage of my lawyer friends hate their jobs.

VanL 9y ago

I did, although I have never really given up engineering. Happy to help if you have questions. See my email in my profile.

DannyBee 9y ago
Don't trust this guy, now he just spends his time writing good books and speeches on open source law.

atwebb 9y ago

Well, Senator.... I'm neither a lawyer nor female, I am married to someone who is both and considered law initially (family of them). Are you missing working companionship or feel pushed out as a female in SW? Is there a specific type of law you'd like to go into, similar to medicine or even software, there's many many different paths. Best of luck, curious why you're looking at switching, I still flirt with it sometimes. Personally, I think the unreasonableness of some of the dealings/proceedings would irk me too much. It is very interesting though and the lawyers I know genuinely help better other people's lives, directly, while making a decent living.

grepthisab 9y ago

I did lightweight eng to law to heavyweight eng. It's really set me up (or at least changed peoples' perception of my skills) to do big picture stuff and make technical recommendations, like a CTO style role.

peteypao 9y ago
What's heavyweight eng?
- grepthisab 9y ago
  Sorry I was trying to convey that I was more freelancing and working on personal projects/contributing to open source before law school, then I did purely law, then moved to SWE at a large SV company.

AskewEgret 9y ago

Unmentioned in the linked article is the fact that sitting for the Patent Bar exam with the USPTO does not require a law degree but instead it requires an engineering or hard science degree. If you like the idea of working with patents, trademarks and copyrights, you may wish to take that route. A lot of Computer Science programs at universities don't meet the requirements and you'd need to supplement your existing degree with laboratory chemistry, physics or biology classes at your local decently accredited college.

richardfontana 9y ago
Patent agents - the term for a non-lawyer who passes the patent bar exam and gets a USPTO registration - are qualified to directly file for patents, and tend to be used by law firms for other analytical tasks requiring technical expertise. However, they tend not to be involved in trademark work, nor copyright work, for a variety of reasons.

DannyBee 9y ago

I've done both. But really, i'd love to understand what the outcome you seek is. These are very different roles, and i'd love to understand what you are hoping to get out of law. Otherwise, feel free to ping me, happy to chat about it.

wmil 9y ago

The job market in Law is far worse than most people think. Make sure you do some serious research before you consider switching. It's easy to end up six figures in debt with no decent job prospects.

regulation_d 9y ago

I went the other direction. My advice would be to make pretty certain you know you'll like whichever area of law you want to go into. I thought I would like corporate law especially working with startups. I got a job doing pretty much exactly what I wanted to do, but I didn't actually like it and only practiced for a year. In my limited, purely anecdotal experience, comparing my developer friends and my lawyer friends, a much larger percentage of my lawyer friends hate their jobs.