Episode 15 - Brandi Hester and the Modern Role of a Legal Applications Developer

Brandi Hester, Applications Development Manager for Hunton Andrews Kurth, discusses how the modern Applications Development team focuses less on actually developing applications from scratch to providing a services, security, access, and connecting the dots on all that data. She walks us through the plethora of “AAS” (as a service) options which law firm IT departments use, and she talks about “Shadow IT” groups found in law firm departments and practice areas. Brandi also shares some great insights on being a woman in a field that historically has favored men in app dev roles. Marlene (@gebauerm) and Greg (@glambert) enjoyed their week off from the podcast and discuss their individual travels to Chicago, and across Texas. Greg also got to present (virtually) at the University of Oklahoma and discovered that many other law firms are struggling to promote their professional development programs due to the issue of “if it ain’t on the final, or the bar exam… students won’t make the effort to attend.” This was an issue discussed recently in an Above the Law article. Professional Development For Law Students: How can students best take advantage of their school’s professional development programming? https://abovethelaw.com/2018/10/professional-development-for-law-students/ Marlene found a new podcast called Women in Law, On the Record, from Greenberg Traurig’s Allison Stewart. Stewart was featured in a recent Law.com article. https://www.law.com/americanlawyer/2018/10/19/greenberg-traurig-associate-launches-podcast-for-women-in-law/ Women in Law, On the Record (iTunes) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/women-in-law-on-the-record/id1437819781?mt=2 Filed under the topic of “did it, or didn’t happen??” is the recent Bloomberg report on China’s alleged hacking of Apple, Amazon, as well as US Military and other government computers through a computer hardware chip smaller than a “small grain” size of rice. Everyone is denying that it happened, but Marlene and Greg wonder how this is going to affect cloud-based projects within law firms?