AltaClaro, AI, and The Future of Lawyer Training

AltaClaro is a pioneer in ‘experiential training’ for young lawyers. Now, in the era of AI, how will legal education and preparing the next generation of associates change? Artificial Lawyer spoke to Abdi Shayesteh, CEO, and Jeremy Liles, CIO, to find out. Hint: they’re already adapting.

The company started in 2015 with Shayesteh having worked in BigLaw and inhouse. Today they provide training to 80 AmLaw 200 firms and are founded on the idea that the only way a lawyer can learn is by doing meaningful work assignments and getting feedback.

With AltaClaro’s approach lawyers are given simulated projects, which include a collection of information, e.g. documents, attachments, emails, requests from the client, and then they have to go and do that work. It’s then reviewed by human experts and informative feedback is given. Although, they’re also now bringing in AI tools to help with the work assessment too.

Shayesteh stresses that doing more than due diligence reviews over and over again is essential for lawyer development. But, if the partner above you isn’t giving you more ‘interesting’ work, then how do you learn? Moreover, as genAI and other tech absorbs more and more of the process-level work done by junior lawyers what happens then?

You can’t learn to swim by watching training videos. We give assignments and it’s a messy fact pattern,’ Shayesteh adds, then notes that it’s all about developing the lawyer’s legal reasoning capabilities.

But, before we dig more into that in terms of its implications in an AI world, the US-based company has just released a new approach called Benchmark 360. It takes much of what they have been doing before and expands upon it, along with the added AI bit mentioned above. This is how it works:

  • ‘Based on a standardized rubric and core competency frameworks, BenchMark360 combines AI and human intelligence to provide:
    •  (1) law firm associates with personalized feedback on their simulated legal assignment submissions,
    • and (2) law firms with the data they need to optimize internal mentoring and training programs.
  • Just like pilots receive feedback on their simulated flight assignments, AltaClaro’s BenchMark360 provides individual, data-driven feedback on simulated legal assignments that allows associates to address gaps early in their careers, helping them hone their skills to professional standards.
  • Similarly, just like athletic trainers need performance data to help target their training, Benchmark360 provides insights to law firm partners/mentors to identify where to allocate their time.’

All well and good, and this looks like a very positive step forward. But, what about how AI changes things more deeply? What happens if AI absorbs a lot of the basic work, which clients pay for, and which in turn is used by law firms to train their juniors? This really matters to training because what work juniors do has a major effect on the lawyers they can become in the future.

As Shayesteh says: ‘You need new assignments. If you do four years of due diligence you are on the way out!’

I.e. because nearly all large law firms operate an ‘up or out’ system for associates, and there are a lot more juniors than seniors, then the ones that end up staying in the firm, at least as fee earners, are the ones who can do more complicated work.

But…..if you’re mostly doing basic work, you can’t develop legal reasoning skills and become the lawyer you perhaps could have become. Ironically, you could be in a BigLaw firm, generate huge amounts of billable hours for the partners by doing tons of process work, i.e. just what they’ve asked of you, but in the end you’re asked to leave because you’re not seen as able to progress into more complex work and/or likely to develop client-facing skills.

But, if you add AI to the mix, then we have an even more complex challenge. Juniors don’t want to get trapped in a world of process work, but if they don’t get over that hurdle – paid for by the clients – then how do law firms even provide them with the basic training they need?

I.e. we may celebrate the idea of juniors not having to do process work, and may then say they’ll go right into more complex matters, but will they really? Is it that simple?

CIO Liles takes up the point: ‘We can take people up the ladder if in the future there is less grunt work.’

I.e. training groups such as AltaClaro become even more essential, at least if the idea is to help the juniors advance in terms of the complexity of the work they can handle. There’s no point saying ‘AI will let lawyers do more interesting work’ if in reality they’re not able to handle it.

The future? Lile hints there is a lot more coming in terms of their use of AI for training. And we have seen others exploring this combination as well.

One thing is for certain, the realm of lawyer training is going to be changed forever by the impact of AI, and in multiple ways.