Ask HN: Is switching careers from IT to legal crazy enough to be worth it?

After 20 or so years in IT (operations mostly) and routinely observing the embarrassing state of legal affairs around anything IT-related, "a friend of mine" has been visited by a thought to switch gears to legal field to apply some technical expertise to the world of yellow notepads. Ignoring the problem of at least 4 years of education required to qualify for a legal clerk job, do you think this is something that can make this world a better place or merely a fancy attempt to cope with mid-life crisis? In a more constructive mode, how do you think the hacker approach can improve the existing legal system?

I went to Law School at Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago-Kent School of Law) there were many, many students who had backgrounds in IT, engineering, etc..

As far as making the world a better place -- I am all for ya trying, but the legal profession is pretty set in its ways.

Constructively, one way to improve the legal system is to get rid of legalese and replace with clear and concise language.

You don't need to have a legal background to help firms with their IT problems. Just go out and do it. If you get an education in the legal field then you'll be doing legal related work. It is like saying dentists need help with IT, therefore I will go to dental school.

But anyway, the legal field really needs some help. Six years ago I was a clerk at an average law office. I went into the store room to get a pen or something, and pulled open a drawer of dictaphones. I asked one of the attorneys what the deal was, and he was like, if you want to make it as a lawyer you need to learn how to use one. They'd dictate out their letters, and then place it in a little plastic bag with a note and drop it off with a paralegal.