Shippable Futures, Escaping Microsoft Word, and Prototyping Your Career with Baru Obračajová

<p>This week on the podcast, I sat down with Baru Obračajová. She is a Czech lawyer, legal designer, and the mind behind &quot;Attorney at Code.&quot; After years of handling cross-border M&amp;A and ESG transactions, she realized the traditional, hyper-specialized legal path was not for her. She took a free Harvard coding class online, and it completely changed how she viewed the practice of law. Today, she teaches a &quot;Modern Lawyers&quot; course at Charles University and helps organizations rethink how legal services are actually delivered.</p><p>We got into why the legal industry&#39;s obsession with Microsoft Word is limiting our imagination, and why lawyers need to start treating their work as an end-to-end product rather than a series of disconnected emails.</p><p><strong>What you will learn</strong></p><ul><li><p><strong>Legal product management.</strong> It is time to stop viewing legal work as just replying to an email with a Word document attached. Discover how to design an end-to-end client experience, from onboarding and pricing all the way to final delivery.</p></li><li><p><strong>Escaping the Microsoft Word trap.</strong> Word is the lowest common denominator in law. Baru challenges us to explore ideas outside of this standard environment. When you stop designing every legal process around a single document editor, you open up massive opportunities for actual innovation.</p></li><li><p><strong>Shippable futures vs. R&amp;D.</strong> Most law firm innovation is vendor-driven and plays it safe with commercially viable &quot;shippable futures.&quot; Learn why exploring speculative, outlandish ideas is essential if you want to understand where the industry is actually heading.</p></li></ul><p><strong>Why this matters</strong>Young lawyers constantly message me worried about getting stuck in a single, narrow practice area forever. Baru&#39;s journey proves you do not have to be a hyper-specialized technician to be successful. By layering different skills—like project management, design, and coding—you can build a highly customized, generalist career that actually fits your interests. You have the agency to shape the future of the profession rather than just sitting around waiting to see if artificial intelligence will replace your job.</p><p><strong>Three takeaways</strong></p><ol><li><p><strong>Prototype your career.</strong> Do not make massive, high-stakes career pivots overnight. If you are interested in legal design, start by redesigning