John Didday, Associate General Counsel for Product and Privacy at Zendesk, shares his journey from law firm to in-house legal roles. He emphasizes the need for clear communication of legal advice to non-lawyers in tech. John discusses the creation of a new law school course on Product Counseling, highlighting the integration of AI tools in legal work. The conversation also covers navigating career risks and enriching legal education through real-world applications, showcasing the importance of mentorship and practical legal skills.
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insights INSIGHT
Humanizing Legal Advice
Effective legal advisors speak in practical, accessible terms to non-lawyers like engineers and product managers.
Complex legal analysis overwhelms; the goal is to give simple, actionable answers that facilitate product development.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Moving Desk To Engineering Team
John moved his desk next to the engineering team to better understand their challenges and build stronger relationships.
This proximity helped him appreciate their core role and tailor legal guidance to facilitate their work.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Leverage AI for Legal Research
Use AI tools like ChatGPT to quickly get direct answers to legal questions, especially in unfamiliar areas.
Leverage AI for research and summarization to save time and assist more people effectively.
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In 'How to Stop Worrying and Start Living', Dale Carnegie provides a set of practical formulas and techniques to help readers overcome their worry habits. The book, first published in 1948, has been updated and remains highly relevant today. It offers advice on how to eliminate business and financial worries, avoid fatigue, improve sleep, and cultivate a mental attitude that brings peace and happiness. Carnegie's approach includes rules such as living in 'day-tight compartments', accepting the worst-case scenario, and keeping busy to crowd out worry. The book is filled with inspiring examples and stories of people who have successfully applied these principles to achieve a more enjoyable and fulfilling life.
The Fast Forward Mindset
The Fast Forward Mindset
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David Schnurman
In this episode of Lawyers Who Learn, David Schnurman, CEO of Lawline, has a conversation with John Didday, Associate General Counsel for Product and Privacy at Zendesk. John shares his journey from starting at Quinn Emanuel to transitioning in-house at health tech and software companies, ultimately finding his way to Zendesk in 2019.
The discussion focuses on John's insights about being an effective legal advisor to non-lawyers in technology companies. He emphasizes the importance of communicating legal advice in practical, accessible ways to engineers and product managers, rather than overwhelming them with complex legal analysis. John explains how moving his desk to sit with the engineering team at a previous company transformed his understanding of their challenges and needs.
John also shares his recent experience teaching a law school course at UC Law San Francisco on "Product Counseling," which he created from scratch since no textbook existed on the topic. He details the process of designing the course, pitching it to the law school, and the challenges and rewards of teaching students about in-house legal work at tech companies.
Throughout the conversation, John and David discuss the use of AI tools in legal work, career transitions from law firms to in-house roles, and how teaching reinforced John's philosophy of giving practical, human-centered legal advice. The episode concludes with reflections on taking career risks and how focusing on making the most of current opportunities can lead to fulfilling career paths, even if they weren't initially planned.
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