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Other than a complete career switch, what can I do with my JD and my knowledge/experience coding?
I don't have a formal degree. Most of it is just self-learning and programming on my own time. Probably have enough experience for a junior or senior level position.

1 year transactional experience.

Anyone know how I can combine this with law? Maybe, soft IP or something?

If you are good at networking and hustling a bit, I think there are some good opportunities at the moment for people who "speak" tech and law in helping the Stanford start-up guys developing AI/Blockchain/smart contracts for the legal and finance sectors really understand the possible use cases on the legal side. The first provider to get there on a default user interface is going to make a ton of money. Risky but if I were younger and had the skills I'd be out there looking at this. Lots of press about who is doing it that you could follow up.

E-Discovery consulting often needs people who can better figure out ways to expedite massive data transfers, processing, and review, while doing so in an easy-to-use interface.

There is also a small but growing opportunity area for legal expert systems that help use automated solutions to help direct people to legal solutions or providers. Legal zoom or smaller companies like Neota Logic come to mind.

Anonymous User wrote:Other than a complete career switch, what can I do with my JD and my knowledge/experience coding?
I don't have a formal degree. Most of it is just self-learning and programming on my own time. Probably have enough experience for a junior or senior level position.

1 year transactional experience.

Anyone know how I can combine this with law? Maybe, soft IP or something?

You could try IP transactional work - this is still a relatively new and hot area, and many big firms are looking to expand their practices here. IP/patent lit, too, but you're already in transactional, so I wouldn't recommend you try to switch to lit. I don't really see how your coding skills would be of any direct help with soft IP (i.e., trademark/copyright) work.

you could also work for a while as an attorney, see exactly how ass-backwards law firms tend to be when it comes to technology, and come up with ideas for new programs that would do current tasks (e.g., organizing diligence, workflow, etc.) much better. Then, instead of just bitching about how the current system sucks, you'd be able to actually go out and create something different. Honestly, you wouldn't have to work for long in order to see opportunities. Then you could go do your own thing, although as you know this wouldn't involve an easy lifestyle or guaranteed success.

To the OP - PM me. It sounds like you and I have pretty similar backgrounds and I'd be happy to share my experiences if you're interested.