A developing area that connects with legal and programming expertise, legal constructions is bridging the gap between law and technology. More information about the opportunities and skills that go with it.
Image: NicoElNino, Getty Images / iStockphoto
Must read developer content
As TechRepublic’s Veronica Combs recently pointed out, software development remains a very successful and lucrative field, though, she said, “the industry’s preference has shifted from specialists to engineers with a varied Skillset.”
SEE: VMworld 2019: important takeaways for managers (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Programming skills can be diverse, covering a wide range of languages, techniques and focuses. One of those skills is an emerging trend known as legal engineering.
I discussed legal arrangements with Cai GoGwilt, CTO and co-founder of Ironclad, a legal contract software development organization to find out more about these and what types of opportunities to offer.
Scott Matteson: Can you define the legal engineering role?
Cai GoGwilt: With Ironclad, legal engineers and product experts who work closely with clients to drive successful implementations. Legal engineers work at the intersection of technology, law, customer success, and product development. At a given week, they may be helping a customer identify a new method for their assignments, involved in scoping a sales deal, or working with our product team to define a new function.
Legal engineers come from incredibly diverse backgrounds and collectively have years of experience and insights that greatly benefit our customers. They include former lawyers from above law schools and some of the country’s best law firms, experts in contract law, and a former civil rights trial lawyer. We have other legal engineers who came from the top tier management consulting firm with us and some who gained a lot of experience at some of the best SaaS Silicon Valley companies.
These different backgrounds and responsibilities mean that the role of legal technology can seem very different depending on who you ask. To our clients, it is believed that they are partners, advising on best practices for building a modern legal team. To our product team, they are the voice of the user, listening and synthesizing valuable feedback. Sometimes we even refer to them internally as our in-house S.W.A.T. team, because they are ready and able to jump in and help solve every situation.
Ultimately legal engineers are at the forefront of modernizing the in-house legal. As legal technology continues to evolve, so will legal engineering. They are writing the script of the new best practices for building a modern legal team and will always work on the border of this changing practice.
Scott Matteson: On which customer needs is the role based?
Cai GoGwilt: When it comes to modernizing legally, customers need a broader strategy. This is where legal construction comes. Lawyers usually do not learn how to operate a modern, in-house legal team in the law school. Legal engineers can provide clues on how to design or improve contracting processes, stakeholders become involved with other teams, and connect Ironclad with other important systems.
More generally, Legal develops rapidly in-house. Legal operations, for example, is still a whole new practice, and even the most permanent appointment individuals in legal ops have only worked on a few legal teams. Our legal engineers see many different ways of running a legal team and often closely together with 10 or more clients in their first month alone. This level of involvement and diversity of experience leads to a deep understanding of common user issues and how to develop and implement effective solutions.
Scott Matteson: What is the parallel between internal legal work and software engineering? And how does legal engineering bridge the gap?
Cai GoGwilt: There are many parallels, but I think that there is an important parallel between contracts and code. Putting together a contract is very similar to putting together a computer program: You try to explain what needs to be done and to anticipate every edge case and eventuality. It also tends to be highly collaborative: lawyers need to understand the business case for the agreement, while engineers need to understand the use case for the software.
A place of the parallel breaks is that software engineers are able to build instruments to make themselves more effective. Legal teams generally recognize that there is a lot of repetitive, highly automated work that bogging them down. However, recognize the problem and establish a way of thinking differently for the problem. Legal engineers help our clients to take a forward-looking mentality in building a modern in-house legal team efficiently.
Scott Matteson: What is the origin of legal engineering?
Cai GoGwilt: Legal construction was one of the first teams at Ironclad, and the team has really been shaped and changed by the people on it. Initially, it was a general business development role and involved understanding issues of customers and passing these issues on to the engineering team. However, many of our early teammates came with legal backgrounds and deep interests at the intersection of law and technology. As a result, our product team built in-house tools that enable our legal engineers to address customer needs directly. Empowering legal engineers in this way completely shifted the role of focusing on synthesizing feedback and summarizing problems to collaborate with clients and solve problems.
As the legal sector continues to grow and evolve, I have no doubt that legal structures will continue to grow and evolve with it. The common thread is the fantastic people in the team and their passion for bringing law and technology together.
SEE: Software developers say they feel pressured to sacrifice code quality to meet deadlines (TechRepublic)
Scott Matteson: What makes legal engineers successful?
Cai GoGwilt: Legal engineers are an important point of contact in terms of customer success. They guide implementations, but also promote acceptance by teams, including sales, HR, purchasing and various business stakeholders involved in approving contracts. In many ways, the goals of successful legal engineers are the same as the customers they serve: identify more efficient processes for generating and completing contracts built around our technology. Successful legal arrangements pave the way for more positive, rewarding long-term relationships with clients.
It is important to emphasize that legal engineers do not only focus on short-term success, nor do they. The goal for legal engineers is to learn together with our clients, catalog known issues or problems, and develop common practices to address them regardless of the industry or vertically. Legal engineers have a huge opportunity to shape the future of legal tech. They do this by speaking the same legal language as our customers and applying the insights of our software team to drive powerful solutions to scale.
Scott Matteson: What educational qualifications do legal engineers need?
Cai GoGwilt: While looking at the future of the legal sector, we must bridge the gap between technology and legal and legal engineers do this literally. This role helps companies to maintain a diverse, highly driven team. Finding successful legal engineers depends on finding people with the drive to expand their skills and build on core competencies of legal education or experience.
Next Big Thing newsletter
Be up to date with smart cities, AI, Internet of Things, VR, autonomous driving, drones, robotics and more of the coolest technical innovations.
Delivered on Wednesday and Friday
Register today
