Oitihjya Sen shares her journey transitioning from law to backend Clojure engineering, exploring parallels between legal reasoning and functional programming.
What does legal reasoning have in common with functional programming? More than you might think. This talk is an experience report from a lawyer who transitioned into a career as a backend Clojure engineer, moving from drafting contracts to designing and deploying features for mission-critical distributed systems.
Attendees will learn about the surprising parallels between legal analysis and writing clean, functional code, and how a background in the humanities can be a strength in software engineering. We will explore a practical, repeatable learning framework modeled on a tool we all know and love: the REPL. This Read-Eval-Print-Loop methodology breaks down daunting tasks—whether learning a new language or refactoring a complex event-driven system—into manageable, iterative cycles. You will leave with not just an inspiring story, but with concrete strategies for approaching your own learning, mentoring others, and a deeper appreciation for the simple, powerful feedback loops that Clojure provides for both our programs and our careers.
Biography
Oitihjya Sen (Otee) is a backend Clojure Engineer at Helpshift Technology, specializing in event-driven distributed systems. He currently leads the effort to enhance the performance and observability of the company's core ticket assignment service.
Before his career in tech, Otee was a corporate lawyer. In a self-directed career pivot, he taught himself software engineering, building a portfolio of projects including a Twitter bot and a URL shortener. He believes in learning through teaching, having documented his process in over 40 blog posts on otee.dev and the Helpshift Engineering Blog. An alumnus of the Recurse Center, Otee is passionate about bridging the gap between unconventional backgrounds and the world of functional programming.
Recorded Nov 13, 2025 at Clojure/Conj 2025 in Charlotte, NC.
The career questioning
Introduction to journey
Seeking change
Learning to code
The power of Clojure
Joining Recurse Center
Engineering at Helpshift
Reflections and advice
Q&A session
Why it's here
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What does legal reasoning have in common with functional programming? More than you might think. This talk is an experience report from a lawyer who transitioned into a career as a backend Clojure engineer, moving from drafting contracts to designing and deploying features for mission-critical distributed systems.
Attendees will learn about the surprising parallels between legal analysis and writing clean, functional code, and how a background in the humanities can be a strength in software engineering. We will explore a practical, repeatable learning framework modeled on a tool we all know and love:…
