---
title: "10 Questions to Ask Before Hiring a Software Developer for Your Law Firm"
description: "A practical checklist of the 10 questions every law firm partner should ask before hiring a software developer or development agency. Covers NDA, pricing, IP, security, and timeline."
url: "https://www.uniqueside.io/blog/10-questions-to-ask-before-hiring-a-software-developer-for-your-law-firm"
canonical: "https://www.uniqueside.io/blog/10-questions-to-ask-before-hiring-a-software-developer-for-your-law-firm"
type: "article"
date: "2026-05-20"
lastmod: "2026-05-23"
author: "Manoj Ahirwar"
category: "Business Software"
---

The 10 questions to ask before hiring a software developer for your law firm cover NDA timing, fixed vs hourly pricing, source code ownership, legal industry experience, security standards, project timeline, post-launch support, staff training, direct developer access, and ongoing maintenance. A serious agency should answer 8 of these 10 correctly and commit to fixed pricing, a 3 to 6 week timeline, and full source code transfer in writing.

These are the questions every law firm partner should ask before signing a development contract. The answers separate professional developers from the rest of the industry.

## 1. Do you sign an NDA before the first conversation?

The wrong answer is "we have a standard MSA that covers confidentiality once we sign." Your client data and matter information are confidential before any contract exists. A mutual NDA at the discovery stage is non-negotiable.

**What to look for:** A developer who has a mutual NDA template ready, signs it without resistance, and treats the call as confidential by default.

## 2. Is the price fixed or hourly?

Hourly billing on legal industry software is how projects double in cost. You will hear "we cannot quote without scoping in detail." That is true. But the result of scoping should be a fixed quote, not an hourly estimate.

**What to look for:** A developer who quotes a fixed price after a 30 to 60 minute scoping call. Hourly billing is a red flag for small firms with constrained budgets.

## 3. Who owns the source code on completion?

Some developers hand over compiled software but keep the source code. Others retain ownership of certain components. For a law firm, this is unacceptable. If you do not own the source code, you do not own the software.

**What to look for:** Explicit language in the contract that all source code, infrastructure configurations, and documentation transfer to your firm on final payment. No exceptions.

## 4. Have you built software for law firms before?

Generic developers build generic software. Legal industry experience matters because ABA Model Rule 1.6 compliance, trust accounting requirements, attorney-client privilege, and matter confidentiality are not generic concerns.

**What to look for:** At minimum, a developer who can describe ABA Model Rule 1.6 implications, basic trust accounting requirements, and the difference between attorney work product and client documents. Bonus points for prior law firm projects, even small ones.

## 5. What security standards do you build to?

This is where you separate professionals from amateurs. The honest answer involves AES-256 encryption at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, role-based access control, two-factor authentication, complete audit logs, and infrastructure on SOC 2 compliant cloud providers.

**What to look for:** A developer who can explain their security approach without prompting, list specific encryption standards, and describe how the system would respond to a breach. Vague answers like "we use industry standard security" are a fail.

## 6. How long will it take from contract to live software?

For a focused law firm portal or internal tool, the honest answer is 3 to 4 weeks from project kickoff to live software. Anyone quoting 6 months for a basic portal is overscoping. Anyone quoting "a few days" is lying or shipping something that will fall over.

**What to look for:** A timeline of 3 to 6 weeks for a focused build with a clear milestone schedule. The developer should commit to the timeline in writing. We commit to this in our [law firm software development](/law-firm-software-development) work.

## 7. What happens if something breaks after launch?

Software has bugs. The question is what the developer's policy is when they appear. Some include post-launch support. Some charge for every fix. Some disappear.

**What to look for:** At minimum 30 days of bug fix support included in the project price. Most professional developers include 2 to 4 weeks. Ongoing support beyond that should be optional, not mandatory.

## 8. Will you train our staff?

The software is only useful if your team can use it. Training is part of the deliverable, not an extra. Look for a developer who plans staff training as part of the project and produces documentation your team will actually read.

**What to look for:** A training plan that includes a live walkthrough with your team, written documentation, and short video tutorials for common workflows. Plus a Q&A period after rollout.

## 9. Who will I actually talk to during the project?

Some agencies have a salesperson who closes the deal, then hands you off to an account manager who relays messages to an offshore developer. By project week 3, you are playing telephone with 4 layers of people who do not know each other's work.

**What to look for:** Direct access to the senior developer building your software, ideally from the first scoping call through delivery. No account managers, no project managers between you and the person writing the code.

## 10. What does ongoing maintenance and updates look like?

After launch, software needs occasional updates, security patches, and new features. The developer's pricing model for this work matters as much as the initial build.

**What to look for:** Two things. First, you should be able to hand the source code to any other developer and have them extend it. No lock-in. Second, if you want the original developer to handle ongoing work, the pricing should be fixed-quote per change request, not retainer-based unless you specifically need a retainer.

## How to score the answers

If a developer gets 8 or more of these right, they are a serious candidate.

If they get 5 to 7, ask follow-ups. They might be a good fit but you need to probe the gaps.

If they get 4 or fewer, keep looking.

We answer all 10 of these the same way every time: yes to NDA before the call, fixed price after scoping, full source code transfer, legal industry experience, modern security stack, 3-week typical timeline, post-launch support included, training built in, direct developer access throughout, and ongoing work always on a fixed-price basis.

If you want to put us through the 10 questions ourselves, [book a 30-minute call](https://tally.so/r/wdaQ1N) and we will answer them all on the call. NDA signed first. No sales pressure.

For more on what we build, see our [law firm software development](/law-firm-software-development) overview and [law firm client portal](/law-firm-client-portal) page. We also covered the broader question of [what to look for in a development agency](/blog/8-things-to-look-for-in-a-software-development-agency-for-your-law-firm) in a related guide.