People seeking help with legal issues involving computers and information technology face formidable obstacles to getting good legal advice. Very few lawyers have practical experience with Computing and IT at a technical level, and good lawyers who have a 20 year background in technical computing and IT are rarer still.
A lawyer may use the description "Information Technology Lawyer", "IT Lawyer" or "Computer Lawyer", but that does not mean the lawyer has any expertise in the technical areas that equips the lawyer to truly understand the issues.
If you choose an IT lawyer who does not have the technical background you will face major hurdles to getting quality legal advice.
The first hurdle is communication. The largest single cause of problems in legal services is failure of communication. According to LawCover, 46% of claims on Solicitors' professional indemnity insurance policies arise from poor communication. A lawyer who has never worked at the technical end of computing and information technology may know a few buzzwords, but you cannot be confident that they know what the terminology you rely on daily really means. If you cannot speak the same language, you cannot communicate.
The second issue is in understanding the technology and the way the law relates to it. Even if a lawyer were to know everything there is to know about the law, any limits on their understanding of the technology will still create obstacles for them in applying the law to answer questions asked by their clients.
Troy Rollo has both strong legal skills, and strong technical skills. He spent nearly 20 years working in software development environments, with 6 years of experience programming as a hobby (or obsession) before that. He also has 15 years of experience as an executive manager in a software company while still remaining hands-on in software development, so he understands both the business and the technical aspects of computing and information technology. He also has extensive experience with open source software and the issues involved with the use of open source software in business.
If you need a solicitor with these kinds of skills in computing and IT law, contact Troy Rollo at Parry Carroll on (02) 9221 3899 or email troy@parrycarroll.com.au.
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