Hacker News
points by skeeter2020 15 hours ago | 0 comments
Am I alone in my reaction that I want my lawyer to focus on law-ing, not pretty unique IT? What do I do if something happens to you and another lawyer or paralegal has to step in?
[–] alansaber 14 hours ago
No, but my impression from this website is that he's a technology lawyer who enjoys maintaining his own stack, which strikes me as nothing but a plus.
[–] nunez 12 hours ago
As long as billable hours don't go towards sysadminning stuff, then what's the problem?
[–] NoboruWataya 12 hours ago
I doubt this blog post is intended for the benefit of his clients.

That said, as someone who is used to Linux and FOSS in my personal life but forced to use a typical corporate tech stack at work, I feel the tech I use at work is a hindrance more than anything and I would be more productive with the kind of stack the author describes.

[–] freejazz 5 hours ago
>I doubt this blog post is intended for the benefit of his clients.

Well it is to their benefit to know this is what's going on, to that other poster's point.

[–] dghlsakjg 14 hours ago
I also want my lawyer to focus on lawyering, not dealing with Microsoft contracts, trying to keep confidential data out of copilot, dealing with proprietary formats, etc.

At the end of the day, every firm needs some form of IT. Above a certain scale you are hiring IT help to manage it anyway, might as well use free software where you can over MS. It’s not as if managing MS for a large org is particularly easy.

[–] creativeSlumber 10 hours ago
> What do I do if something happens to you and another lawyer or paralegal has to step in?

This is one of the advantages of running free software. The data formats are open, so all of the data should be able to be imported any other system.

[–] lmz 2 hours ago
This is one of the advantages of using MS Office. The other lawyer can just use their own copy or subscribe online and not bother with replicating a custom environment.
[–] harvey9 14 hours ago
Reading the blog post, he isn't doing anything that unusual just using some open source applications that other people can use just as easily.
[–] tomrod 15 hours ago
Businesses don't always want to have their profit sapped by overeager SaaS allegedly allowing said firm to focus on the business. Like all operating decisions, it is a cost/benefit tradeoff.

Like Intuit raising quickbook prices by 20% every few months.

[–] bix6 15 hours ago
+1, too many SaaS’ sapping profit.

Intuit is killing me. I am genuinely looking for another solution that won’t break my CPAs brain.

Also the desktop vs online stuff is so annoying since they don’t have 1:1 feature parity.

[–] SoftTalker 14 hours ago
GnuCash? Ledger or another plain-text tool?
[–] natbennett 2 hours ago
Not alone, but like, I know a guy who runs a tech consulting firm and he is delighted that his lawyer, who is a former lawyer, has technology opinions.

A lot of clients won't care but for certain clients this signals that their lawyer understands their values.

[–] Forgeties79 15 hours ago
I personally would find my lawyer working on projects and blogging about stuff related to his legal domain to be a good thing. This is no different than a constitutional lawyer writing a blog about some constitutional matter going on in current events.
[–] seemaze 15 hours ago
I mean, the first sentence of TFA reads "..a small English law firm, focussing on Internet, telecoms, and tech law". Seems well suited to deploying 'pretty unique IT' with minimal effort.

I assume deliverables are indistinguishable from any other firm, it's not like they are submitting a brief in OpenDocument Format.

[–] wiseowise 15 hours ago
> Am I alone in my reaction

You are.