I’ve worked with attorneys for a long time, and I’ve made a lot of jokes about their tech skills. Attorneys have likely made jokes about me (for any number of justifiable reasons).
Alas, the scales of ridicule seem to have sided with the attorney community. A company may hire the best developers/engineers who can code in Python, Java, C++, SQL, PHP, and everything else, but that company won’t make a profit unless they’ve hired attorneys who’ve mastered the legal code around tech.
Should attorneys be invited to the scrum meeting normally reserved for software developers and engineers (aka “technologists”)? Neither community enjoys reputations for being easy to work with, and scrum masters have enough to manage with just technologists. Why take the extra effort to invite attorneys too?
While attorneys may not be familiar with software code, they are well-versed in the US legal code, governing the laws of the world’s largest economic market. In addition, every jurisdiction has its own code; each US state has its own code, followed by ever smaller jurisdictions like cities. Plus, every country has their own code followed by their smaller jurisdictions like provinces and districts. For every country in which a company seeks to capitalize on investments in tech, it needs to know the law in those respective jurisdictions.
I started a running list of court rulings, laws, and regulations that illustrate there is no shortage of reasons for attorneys and technologists to meet frequently. It might just be me, but having plenty of reasons to meet frequently doesn’t necessarily mean that these communities actually want to meet more often. Further, most of general public would prefer to not interact with either group unless they had no other choice.
Steven Spielberg’s first Jurassic Park movie made a billion in box office receipts and even more through merchandising, all while making us root for dinosaurs. He did this by having dinosaurs eat the unlikable park attorney and technologist.
That movie captured how most people feel about attorneys and technologists; many would prefer dinosaurs to rule the Earth rather than listen to an attorney or technologist (Spielberg generously let both survive for 75 minutes).
Low expectations precede any meeting with attorneys or technologists. Both groups seem prone to changing their mind on a whim (the Jurassic Park attorney first threatens to shut down the park, then wants to make millions off the entrance fees), and then over promising and under delivering yet wanting to make you feel stupid for wasting their time and not appreciating them (the Jurassic Park technologist seeks revenge for not getting paid nor appreciated enough for his brilliance in automating the park).
Are there movies and television shows that portray attorneys and technologists as heroes? Many do, but they don’t make Jurassic Park money. Plus, those shows need someone to face accusations of murder before they call an attorney (How to Get Away with Murder) or face a disaster that requires mastery of some type of technology (any episode of Star Trek). From a pop culture perspective, no one should willingly spend time with them unless their lives depended on it.
Yet, attorneys and technologists dare to dream. Like everyone, they enjoy seeing themselves as heroes: as crusaders for justice, saving the innocent from miscarriages of the law (A Few Good Men, $240 million box office) or as heroic problem solvers saving the lives of those facing doom (Apollo 13, $350 million box office). Even Jurassic Park gave technologists their moment:
I learned a lot watching Jurassic Park while it’s been streaming on Netflix the last month. As a work of fiction, it conveyed the outcomes we fear when attorneys and technologists work on the same project. To balance that narrative, I searched for a real world example of attorneys and technologists working together in a way that would inspire us all.
Since the first use of scrum for software occurred only recently in the 1990s, I didn’t find much in recent history. Instead, I looked to other events.
Starting in 1774, American colonists got together in the First Continental Congress to debate what to do about England. With over 50 representatives, they couldn’t agree on anything except to meet at the Second Continental Congress.
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At that Congress, John Adams approached John Hancock, the President of the Second Continental Congress, to have a very small scrum team draft a rationale for the colonies to separate from England. Adams would serve as the scrum master to make sure it got written provided Hancock, the product owner, kept the customers of the document busy and not disturb the team.
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Adams had Thomas Jefferson, an attorney, draft the document, and Ben Franklin, a technologist, review it. Hancock asked for a “Committee of Five” as three people sounded too small and five people roughly corresponded to 10 percent of the customer base. Adams agreed, but said the three of them would most likely write the document and give the other two credit as long as they showed up for scrum meetings.
That first American experience with scrum (with an attorney and technologist working together!) led to the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
As I stated earlier, I’ve worked with attorneys for a long time.
They are brilliant.
Do I dread meetings with them that turn into a game of who can answer “it depends” first? Yes. Yes I do.
But there is no denying they are brilliant, creative, and all together excellent in terms of the knowledge and logic of the legal code. With technology ever-changing, it’s attorneys who will play the key role in finding boundaries and guardrails that allow technologists to innovate so all of us prosper safely. We wouldn’t have an America without both communities working together.
So, yes, attorneys should be invited to the daily scrum meeting. They need to understand how the technology works to ensure the law works as intended.
However, lest my attorney friends get too cocky knowing how much I admire them and acknowledge we need them, they should also know this:
Copyright © 2024 Raghav Vajjhala. All Rights Reserved. Any republication shall include a link to raghavofftopic.substack.com.