Mixing Law And Computer Science Degrees?

Janthkin asks: "I'm finishing my BS in computer science this year, and I'm looking for some advice. Grad school is a given: I want a master's in computer science. However, I'm also very interested in pursuing a career in law. Given the number of high- (and low-) profile cases we've seen just in the last year or so involving technology in general, and computers in particular, it seems reasonable to believe that a lawyer with significant computer knowledge would do quite well, much as the medical doctors with law degrees do. Anyone out there have experiences (personal or otherwise, finanacial or not) to share that might help me decide what to do?"

Comments

Re:Go for it....

[tf23]

This is *very* true. I work for a very large Bar association (I'm a techie, I don't get the legal mumble jumble) - and the attorneys who know IT technology are making a *fortune*. If you have the opportunity to go to law school, take full advantage of it and do it.

Go for it....

[duplicate-nickname]

My brother-in-law just finished law school this past year. While we were talking over a few beers one night, he said that the greatest demand is for lawyers with an MD (there only 400 or so in the country) and recently internet/computer law. There apparently aren't very many lawyers with the technical know-how to handle computer related cases (criminal to things like IP).

Re:Don't do it

[Lish]

Ah, but with the degrees in CS already, if this should happen (deciding law isn't for you) you've got a darn good fallback plan.

Also, I respectfully disagree that a CS degree would be useless outside of patent law. There's a lot to be done in the area of computer crime, to name one. [H,Cr]ackers need defense attorneys; prosecutors need to know what they're talking about when they prosecute [h,cr]ackers; goodness knows we need more technically-aware people pushing for better laws against computer crime and regarding the whole IP-rights-field. We spend so much time here complaining about how inept/uninfomed lawyers are/can be. I applaud someone who wants to change that.

Personal Experience

[AndrewD]

Go for it, my son.

My own CS knowledge was acquired at the University of Life, with postgrad work and the College of stuff I figured out as I went along, but I find it tremendously useful in practice as a lawyer.

I'm in a CS & Law course right now

[RhetoricalQuestion]

I'm currently taking an undergrad course entitled Computers and The Law of Information Technology. It's a CS course, taught by 2 lawyers, and it's VERY interesting.

According to the lawyers, several students of this class have gone on to become lawyers. There is a huge demand for lawyers who understand IT in both public and private law.

The only caveat is that most of the stuff that's relevant to IT (the stuff we're being introduced to right now) doesn't really surface until your last year of law school.

But if Law interests you, I would persue it. At worst, you decide not to be a coder or a lawyer and get a fantastic job elsewhere because you've specialized in two fields that most people know very little about, even though it affects them all the time.

PLEASE DO!

[bluGill]

Okay, it must be a personal decision. However, as a pure tech let me encourage you to do so. I've thought about self-study to get a law degree equivelent myself (I don't know if I'd be allowed to take the bar) just because of all the stupid cases we have seen on /.

Once you do get your degree we would like it best if you would make your night job a technical one that paid the bills, and for the day work on some of these technical cases for those of us without the ability to deal with law. Sort of an EFF lawyer without taking money from the EFF. Since in reality you can't do this, just find something that you can make work for you.

Certainly a similar combo exists for Chem/Law

[Masem]

I know that there is a large body of people that study chemistry/chemical engineering, then persue a law degree, as usually to become patent attornies. This is a common route for a patent attorny to follow, but chemisty-based patents have exists for decades; computer-based patents are mostly limited to within the last 2 decades. Because of the difference in age of the fields, there hasn't been any sort of common route for computer/law experts. I would see if you can find any school that does take in scientists and engineers, and makes them patent lawyers out of them and discuss with them your ideas for what you want to become. I would still urge you to study patent law, as that's one of the biggest areas out there right now that needs to be fixed from a computer standpoint.