This document discusses computer programming for lawyers. It begins with an agenda that includes modern web architecture, how to learn programming, key concepts, and streamlining legal practice with programming. It then covers topics like APIs, frontend and backend languages, frameworks, databases, and provides an example architecture. It discusses effective ways to learn programming including making mistakes, using Google, and joining communities. Key concepts covered include regular expressions, data types, functions, conditions, and loops. It also provides an example of how a lawyer who codes may spend their day, integrating tools like Python, the command line, and Zapier to streamline copyright infringement tasks. It concludes with additional learning resources.

1. Computer programming for lawyers
Nehal Madhani
nehal@altlegal.com
@AltLegalHQ

2. AGENDA
Modern web architecture
How to learn to program
Key programming concepts
Streamlining your practice
Resources to learn programming

3. Nehal Madhani
Founder & CEO
Alt Legal
@nehalm
Nehal Madhani is the founder and CEO of Alt Legal,
whose software makes it easy for law firms to
create and manage IP filings. Before starting Alt
Legal, Nehal practiced as an attorney at Kirkland &
Ellis, LLP. He is a self-taught Python/Django
programmer.
Nehal has a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania
Law School, a Certificate in Business and Public
Policy from the Wharton School of Business, and a
B.A. from Northwestern.

4. Modern web architecture

5. HOW DOES THE INTERNET WORK?
1. Enter a website address (URL).
2. The DNS service translates this into a
specific IP address.
3. The web server at the IP address
corresponding to the domain name you
requested is then contacted over the
internet.
4. The server comes back with data, and your
web browser translates the data to content
like text, images, animations, etc.

6. HOW DO MODERN WEBSITES AND MOBILE APPS WORK?
Request data
Receive data

7. UNDERSTANDING MODERN WEB ARCHITECTURE
• Web servers are just computers. Your computer can be a web server too,
but it’s best practice to use a dedicated computer (usually one with
hardware specially selected for that purpose) in a datacenter managed by
professional administrators.
• TCP/IP, DNS, and HTTP are all plain text that is sent as messages delivered
over existing networks such as cable lines, phone lines, or specially built
high capacity phone lines or fiber optic lines.
• Databases are also just a program run on a computer (again, perhaps on a
dedicated machine with specialized hardware), but you can run one. You
probably will use your own small database as you learn to program.

8. UNDERSTANDING MODERN WEB ARCHITECTURE
• You make a “request” when you click a link or type in an address into your
web browser.
• Your request is translated into the location of a specific file on a specific
computer. This file is broken into small chunks called packets and sent to
your device.
• Your device assembles the chunks and passes them to your browser. The
file you have been sent (we'll say an HTML file) is a small program meant
for your browser. That program contains instructions on how to present
and style a web document.

9. SEEING FOR YOURSELF

10. UNDERSTANDING MODERN WEB ARCHITECTURE
• Your browser is just receiving a file full of plain text instructions, which is
why you can view the source.
• Contrast this with programs that you install on your computer like Word.
This program is compiled directly into machine code, so if you open it, you
can't read it. It is just a series of numbers that correspond to specific
instructions for your CPU.
• On the web, almost everything is transparent, and it should be this way
because you don’t know who is sending your computer instructions.
• This creates a secure, transparent environment (in theory) : the browser;
and a public database of who is who: DNS; and then we all let each other
run programs that each other wrote on our computers.

11. WHAT IS AN API?
• An API is an Application Programming Interface.
• An interface is a boundary between two things. In this case, the boundary
between a person and a service. A user interface on the web is a webpage.
Twitter has a user interface where you can read tweets, send tweets,
follow, DM, favorite, etc.
• An API is a programmatic interface. Twitter also has an API that lets you
tweet, follow, DM, etc. APIs are how two programs integrate, or even how
a mobile app communicates back to the servers.
• Amazon is famous for using APIs everywhere. The warehouse is an API to
let any authorized user (within the company or among partners) check
stock, reorder, place pull or ship requests, etc.

12. WHAT IS AN API?
1. An API is an Application Programming Interface.
2. An interface is boundary between two things. In this case, the boundary between a person
and a service. A user interface on the web is a webpage. Twitter has a user interface where
you can read tweets, send tweets, follow, DM, favorite, etc.
3. An API is a programmatic interface. Twitter also has an API that lets you tweet, follow, DM,
etc. APIs are how two programs integrate, or even how a mobile app communicates back
to the servers.
4. Amazon is famous for using APIs everywhere. The warehouse is an API to let any authorized
user (within the company or among partners) check stock, reorder, place pull or ship
requests, etc.

13. WHAT ARE APIs?
Source: An introduction to APIs, https://zapier.com/learn/apis/chapter-1-introduction-to-apis/

14. FRONTEND LANGUAGES

15. BACKEND LANGUAGES

16. FRAMEWORKS

17. DATABASES

18. EXAMPLE: ALT LEGAL ARCHITECTURE
• Unique architecture
• Backend: Python/Django, Javascript/Node.js
• Frontend: Javascript, HTML, CSS (most websites rely on this)
• Database: Mongo, Postgres

19. Learning to program

20. FIRST ATTEMPT: A “LAWYERLY” APPROACH

21. FIRST ATTEMPT: A “LAWYERLY” APPROACH

22. FIRST ATTEMPT: A “LAWYERLY” APPROACH

23. THE RIGHT WAY TO LEARN PROGRAMMING: “THE HARD WAY”

24. THE RIGHT WAY TO LEARN PROGRAMMING: GOOGLE

25. THE RIGHT WAY TO LEARN PROGRAMMING: BE PART OF THE COMMUNITY
• Join local communities like Meetup
• Contribute to open source projects on Github
• Contribute to discussions on Stack Overflow, LinkedIn, and Twitter

26. Key programming concepts

27. REGULAR EXPRESSIONS
• Regular expressions (regex) are a compact way to specify a pattern of
characters in text using specific rules.
• Using this language, you can set the rules for the set of potential strings
you want to match. This could include sentences, statutes, and email
addresses.
• For example, you can ask questions like “Does all statute cites follow a
particular pattern?”
• It can even be used to do advanced searches in Microsoft Word.

28. REGEX SYNTAX
• d: Matches any digit [0-9]
• d{3,5}: Matches 3, 4, or 5 digits
• d+: Matches any positive interger
• D: Matches any non-digit character (anything other than a digit)
• w: Matches any alphanumeric character (any digit, lowercase letter, or
uppercase letter)
• w+: Matches ny word
• W: Matches any non-alphanumeric character (anything other than a
digit, lowercase letter, uppercase letter)
• s: Matches space
• [Pp]ython: Matches “Python” or “python”

29. DATA TYPES
• Strings: A collection of characters like “This is a trademark”.
• Integers: A whole number like 1, 2, -2, and -1.
• Floats: A number with a decimal point like 0.1 and 1.1.
• Booleans: Variables whose value is expressed as True or False.
• Array: List of other data types like
Classes = [“Evidence”, “Property”, “Contracts”]
Values in arrays can be retrieved using Classes[0].

30. FUNCTIONS
Function is a group of code that has been given a name.
Example:
def update_case(x):
```Code that accesses government databases, queries a
```particular case, updates the case, and saves the information
return x

31. CONDITIONS (TESTS A COMPUTER CAN COMPLETE)
• Greater than: Is one value greater than another value (>)
• Lesser than: Is one value lesser than another value (<)
• Greater than or equal: Is one value greater or equal to another value (>=)
• Lesser than or equal: Is one value lesser or equal to another value (<=)
• Equal: Is one value equal to another value (==)
• Unequal: Is one value not equal to another value (!=)

32. CONDITIONS (PSEUDO CODE)
If a trademark application receives a new office action:
• Find the current status date (the date the office action was issued)
• Add a new entry in my calendar: “Respond to the office action.”
• Use the date the office action was issued and add six months as the
deadline to respond.

33. TRANSLATING INTO CODE USING CONDITIONS
If TM_APPLICATION_CURRENT_STATUS == “office action”:
STATUS_DATE = TM_APPLICATION_CURRENT_STATUS_DATE
CALENDAR_ENTRY_TITLE = “Respond to office action”
CALENDAR_ENTRY_DEADLINE = STATUS_DATE + 6m

34. LOOPS
Loops are used to repeat a piece of code some set number of times or while
a particular condition is true.
Example:
cases = ['124201', '125201', '178304']
for case in cases:
print "Updating " + case
update_case(case)

35. LOOPS
Another way to create loops:
index = 0
cases = [124201, 125201, 178304]
while index < len(cases):
print “Updating case number ” + cases[index]
update_case(cases[index])
index = index + 1

36. Streamlining your practice

37. • Administrative work: Work that requires minimal interpretation like
calendaring and billing
• Repetitive work: Legal tasks that are repetitive in nature and ripe for
automation
• Legal work: Substantive legal tasks that require interpretation and are
not entirely repetitive
DIVIDING AND CONQUERING

38. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
Meet Sarah. Sarah is an IP lawyer. She has a broad practice where she
helps clients protect their IP rights. Sarah prosecutes patents, trademarks,
and copyrights registrations on behalf of her clients.

39. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
At 9AM, Sarah reads an email from a client whose photos are being made
available for download illegally. The infringing party has copies all the
photos all over its website and hasn't even bothered to change the names
of the files.

40. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
Sarah’s client sent her a file with all of the filenames that he says are being
infringed. Sarah uses the command line to parse the text file of file names
and remove the file paths and saves it as a CSV file.
She then writes a small python program to spider the infringing website
and find the links and save them back to a new file.

41. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
Next, Sarah looks up the ownership information of the infringing website
and finds out who is hosting the content. She just launches Terminal on her
Mac and just types in whois and the infringing party’s website.
Whois www.istealphotographs.com
Domain Name: ISTEALPHOTOGRAPHS.COM
Registrar: GODADDY.COM, LLC
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: Cosmo Kramer
Registrant Organization: Vandalay Industries
Registrant Street: 1500 First Street
Registrant City: New York
Registrant State/Province: New York
Registrant Postal Code: 10011
Registrant Country: United States

42. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
Then, Sarah loads up her Word template for a cease and desist letter and a
DMCA takedown notice for the hosting company and emails them to the
respective parties with a particular subject.
Sarah uses Google Apps for her email and has created a rule that
automatically tag emails “DMCA Notices” if the email subject starts with
“Copyright Infringement.”

43. A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A LAWYER WHO CODES
Using Zapier, if a new email is tagged DMCA Notice, it automatically
creates (1) follow-up reminders in Clio (her practice management
software); (2) a new matter; and (3) a new billing entry.

44. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

45. RESOURCES
• Codecademy (use this to get familiar with syntax and HTML)
• Learn python the hard way
• Learn command line the hard way
• Regex Tutorial
• Harvard CS50 Course
• Stack Overflow (programming forum)
• Treehouse (paid service)
• Codeschool (paid service)
• Dash by General Assembly (HTML, CSS, Javascript Intro)