Coding for Lawyers is an online book by V. David Zvenyach (a lawyer with an engineering background) that introduces the essentials of computer programming to lawyers. It’s a very useful entry-level text, that doesn’t presume much familiarity with coding. It takes a lawyer-centered approach that begins to orient the novice to the way that programmers think — how they approach problems & structure solutions.
From the Book’s FAQ:
What? Lawyers and Coding?
It’s true. Lawyers can code. In fact, if you’re a lawyer, the truth is that it’s easier than you think. I am a lawyer, and a coder.1 In the course of two years, I have gone from knowing essentially nothing to being a decent coder in several languages. This book is intended to drastically shorten that time for others who, like me, decide that they want to learn to code.
Why this book?
One thing that I discovered, when learning to code, is that there are surprisingly few freely available books on the basics of coding, books that assume you know nothing about coding, books that assume you went to law school because you didn’t like numbers.2 And, we need more lawyers who code.
The current version (1.0) will be updated later, in part based on users’ requests. Zvenyach offers the book for free, but you’re welcome to give him donations for the work he’s put out there!