The Full-Stack Legal Professional

I’ve spent a good chunk of the past five years working on the operational issues that commonly bog down immigration legal teams.

First, while managing a team of immigration professionals at an immigration software company/alternative legal service provider. More recently, while helping law firms shape their employee onboarding and training programs.

This blended background in workplaces—traditional boutique law firm and remote-first tech startup—is to blame for an idea I’ve toyed with in my head for awhile.

It’s become increasingly difficult for small and midsize law firms to hire for (and develop) the skills they need to future-proof their business.

Enter: the ‘full-stack’ legal professional!

The Foundation: A Full-Stack Engineer

In tech, a full-stack engineer is proficient in working on most (if not all) parts of the product, from front-end user experience to back-end server-side applications.

Their experience and knowledge allows them to work on—you guessed it—full-stack of the development process, including design, testing, and implementation. It’s common for resource-strapped startups to hire full-stack professionals when they need the flexibility offered by broad engineering and development skill sets like this.

While an imperfect comparison to the business decisions faced by law firm owners, the full-stack model offers a useful framework regardless.

And for legal professionals looking to expand their career opportunities, it’s a great way to explore new skills.

The Frankenstein: Full-Stack Legal Professional

What might a full-stack legal professional look like? Aside from an obvious focus on foundational tech skills, I see a few core areas to develop:

• Project Management: Increasingly complex legal work will require asynchronous coordination, resource planning, and legal operations skills
• Digital communication: Proficiency in digital collaboration tools in response to growth in remote work, demand for remote client consultations, e-filings for courts and government systems, and other virtual legal proceedings.
• Client-centered services: Emotional intelligence, empathetic service delivery, and user-friendly communications.
• Tech competency: Data privacy, cybersecurity, best practices & basic troubleshooting skills. Basic fluency in client-facing technology.

Meanwhile, role-specific legal knowledge, education, and training will continue to be crucial. At the organizational level, an emphasis on cross-disciplinary and niche practice expertise to meet a broader range of client requests.

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The Blueprint: Full-Stack Software Teams

It’s important to note that the full-stack model doesn’t work for every tech team.

It also requires upfront effort to address some truths about your organization—it won’t succeed in a law firm culture built on knowledge silos, hierarchy, and gatekeeping. The versatile, client-oriented work style of a full-stack professional is inherently at odds with these org values.

Developing legal workplaces that more openly encourage this professional development model also require changes in hiring plans, and adjustments to employee training and development programs. Traditional law firm hiring strategy—emphasizing years of experience—is at odds with the full-stack framework.

The Goal: A Full-Stack Legal Team

What might a full-stack law firm or legal team look like? An emphasis on overlapping skill sets and expertise, and holistic and comprehensive services, offer:

• User-friendly services: Team members have the tools needed to individually serve a wider, more holistic range of client needs.
• Continuous learning: Encourage development of non-traditional, complementary skill sets.
• Adaptability: Empower legal teams to provide more flexible, agile services.
• Remote collaboration: Emphasis on asynchronous, digital collaboration to remove friction from common workflows.
• Knowledge-sharing: Strong knowledge management practices avoid service bottlenecks from silos in expertise and specialized knowledge.

The Conclusion: Baby Steps

While the term ‘full-stack developer’ is barely old enough to drive, the concept has a longer history in software development under different names (or lack thereof). At its core, it emphasizes applying broad, overlapping skills and expertise that enable small teams to work and grow alongside their customers.

That, at least, is a simple framework we can strive for in the legal world.

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