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In an ever-more competitive legal market caused by an over-saturation of talented graduates, the list of required skills law firms formulate continues to grow.
Law firms already expect strong computing skills. This is due to the frequent use of the tool by lawyers. With the growing use of AI and other softwares, coding may, as a consequence, also become a required skill. This is because the softwares will become integral to how lawyers perform their tasks. The ability to correct the machine as it learns to become more accurate will be seen as a 'value-add'.
On the other hand, lawyers, just like all other professionals, tend to specialise in a niche area. The need for coding skills may be true for those who specialise in the interaction between machine and lawyers, but not for all.
Ultimately, cherry-picking is an option law firms have. If firms decide that coding is a required skill, the talent pool will need to adapt.
I definitely agree with @Malcolm Reto Vincent Zoppi. I think as oppose to coding specifically law firms will want a running understating, just like commercial awareness, an awareness of technology. Law firms will want aspiring lawyers to understand how technology works, how it can be utilised and how the technological market can be used for themselves and their clients. Coding may be required but an undertaking of how technology as a broad works will definitely be a vital skill.
Along with the points made by @Malcolm Reto Vincent Zoppi and @Mine Toufeq, I personally feel like coding may be required but it does not hold as much weight as people are putting on it.
I agree that having solid computing skills and and a technological mindset is incredibly important and something all future lawyers should build up . However, there may not be circumstances in practice where a lawyer may need to actually code or create software themselves.
There could be moments where coding is useful, such as at Legal Hackathons, but in practice that knowledge of coding would rarely be used.