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HarvardX: CS50's Computer Science for Lawyers

This course is a variant of Harvard University's introduction to computer science, CS50, designed especially for lawyers (and law students).

CS50's Computer Science for Lawyers
10 weeks
3–6 hours per week
Self-paced
Progress at your own speed
Free
Optional upgrade available

There is one session available:

179,675 already enrolled! After a course session ends, it will be archivedOpens in a new tab.
Starts Mar 19
Ends Dec 31

About this course

Skip About this course

This course is a variant of HarvardUniversity's introduction to computer science, CS50, designed especially for lawyers (and law students). Whereas CS50 itself takes a bottom-up approach, emphasizing mastery of low-level concepts and implementation details thereof, this course takes a top-down approach, emphasizing mastery of high-level concepts and design decisions related thereto. Ultimately, it equips students with a deeper understanding of the legal implications of technological decisions made by clients.

Through a mix of technical instruction and discussion of case studies, this course empowers students to be informed contributors to technology-driven conversations. In addition, it prepares students to formulate technology-informed legal arguments and opinions. Along the way, it equips students with hands-on experience with Python and SQL, languages via which they can mine data for answers themselves.

Topics include algorithms, cloud computing, databases, networking, privacy, programming, scalability, security, and more, with a particular emphasis on understanding how the work developers do and the technological solutions they employ may impact clients. Students emerge from this course with first-hand appreciation of how it all works and all the more confident in the factors that should guide their decision-making.

Keywords:law firm, computer programming, programming skills, computer programmers, patent attorney, legal practice, legal services, legal education, patent law

At a glance

  • Language: English
  • Video Transcript: English
  • Associated skills:Computer Programming, Decision Making, Cloud Computing, Data Mining, Python (Programming Language), Scalability, Patents, Certified Computer Programmer, Computer Science, SQL (Programming Language), Algorithms

What you'll learn

Skip What you'll learn
  • Computational Thinking
  • Programming Languages
  • Algorithms, Data Structures
  • Cryptography
  • Cybersecurity
  • Internet Technologies, Cloud Computing
  • Web Programming
  • Database Design
  • Cybersecurity, continued
  • Challenges at the Intersection of Law and Technology

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