I work with public institutions on the architecture and modernization of legislative information systems.
My work focuses on the structured representation of legislation and case law, the design of standards-based editorial and publication pipelines, and the development of modern APIs and public-facing services. I work extensively with Crown Legislative Markup Language (CLML), United States Legislative Markup (USLM), and LegalDocumentML (Akoma Ntoso).
Designing and leading the redevelopment of legislation.gov.uk, including new standards-based APIs and a modern front-end architecture.
Led development of the data migration that incorporated all EU regulations, directives, and decisions into legislation.gov.uk. Designed and implemented the conversion from Formex to CLML, including comprehensive metadata mapping and support for point-in-time versions. Developed a timeline feature for EU documents not available in EUR-Lex.
Conducted a year-long study of legislative drafting systems and processes, culminating in a report outlining recommendations for improved collaboration, drafting infrastructure, and standards adoption.
Designed and built the initial end-to-end prototype of the Find Case Law service, including an open-source Word-to-Akoma Ntoso parser, database architecture, search functionality, and web interface. The parser used at public launch was derived from this work.
Replaced the Commission’s editorial system by implementing Oxygen Web Author with schema integration, custom editorial tools, and tailored WYSIWYG stylesheets. Designed and built an automated publication workflow integrating directly with the public Revised Acts service, including the underlying website and database architecture.
Developed the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for legislation.gov.uk, enabling structured, standards-based AI-assisted exploration of legislative data.
My work combines software engineering and legal training. Earlier projects included building structure-aware search systems for UK legislation, producing official XML versions of the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, and implementing document standards initiatives for international organizations.
I work independently and collaborate closely with institutional teams on long-term infrastructure projects.
I’m Jim Mangiafico, an independent software developer and attorney based just outside Washington, DC.
I previously practiced commercial litigation at a large law firm in Washington. I earned my J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where I served as Executive Articles Editor of the Michigan Law Review.
I have been writing computer programs since childhood. In 2014, I received first place in two Legislative Data Challenges sponsored by the Library of Congress.
I work independently and collaborate closely with institutional teams on long-term legislative infrastructure projects.