Reinventing Associate Training with Abdi Shayesteh (AltaClaro)
Oct 12, 2023
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Abdi Shayesteh, founder and CEO of AltaClaro, discusses reinventing legal education and training. AltaClaro uses experiential learning techniques to provide associates with hands-on practice. The podcast covers Abdi's early entrepreneurial experiences, issues with traditional law firm training, learning science principles used by AltaClaro, and training trends for law firms in 2023.
Altakara is an experiential learning platform for lawyers, providing interactive and practice-based training to enhance their skills and confidence in real-life legal work.
Altakara's courses go beyond traditional legal training, such as M&A and litigation, to cover a range of essential skills for lawyers at different stages in their career.
Deep dives
Altakara: Revolutionizing Legal Training
Altakara is an experiential learning platform for lawyers, providing interactive and practice-based training to enhance their skills and confidence in real-life legal work. Through a multimodal approach, Altakara offers bite-sized videos, mock assignments, and live sessions with vetted practitioners. Their programs cover various practice areas, including corporate, M&A, capital markets, real estate, IP, and tech. By leveraging education science principles, Altakara focuses on active learning, where lawyers learn by doing, resulting in higher retention rates and improved practical skills. This innovative approach helps law firms bridge the training gap and better prepare their associates to serve clients effectively.
Identifying Early Adopters and Delivering Quality
Altakara's journey began by identifying early adopters, law firms willing to take a risk and embrace innovation. Early clients, such as K&L Gates, Orick, and Barnes & Thornburg, allowed Altakara to test and refine their training platform. The company prioritized quality, ensuring that their courses met the high standards expected by top law firms. They iterated on their product, gathering feedback from practitioners, small law firms, and universities. Altakara's first client, K&L Gates, played a crucial role in proving the platform's value and providing valuable insights for further improvement.
Scaling Training Programs and Addressing Skill Gaps
Altakara's courses go beyond traditional legal training, such as M&A and litigation, to cover a range of essential skills for lawyers at different stages in their career. From communication and leadership skills to technology proficiency and business acumen, Altakara helps lawyers develop a well-rounded skill set. They are exploring advanced areas like generative AI and prompt engineering for lawyers, addressing emerging needs and providing cutting-edge training. Altakara employs a data-driven approach to monitor completion rates, assess learner experience, and tailor programs to individual needs, ensuring maximum effectiveness and engagement.
Fostering Client-Centricity and Innovating Legal Education
Altakara's training platform aims to foster a client-centric mindset among lawyers. By deepening their understanding of clients' industries, needs, and challenges, lawyers can provide more valuable and effective legal services. Altakara's courses empower lawyers to enrich their skills and think beyond legal theories. They encourage lawyers to bridge the skill gap from junior associate to partner, providing training on substantive skills, business knowledge, and technology proficiency. With a focus on active learning and a commitment to high-quality instruction, Altakara is revolutionizing legal education by offering immersive, practical, and client-centric training for the legal profession.
While technology races ahead, improving legal training and education has lagged behind. Law schools excel at teaching students the law, but critical and practical skills development is often lacking. With the traditional law firm apprenticeship model fading, junior lawyers frequently lack opportunities to gain hands-on experience.
Abdi Shayesteh, founder and CEO of the legal training platform AltaClaro, is on a mission to close this practical skills gap. Frustrated by the inefficiencies he experienced firsthand as a junior lawyer, Abdi has reinvented legal education and training. AltaClaro leverages experiential learning techniques rooted in education science to provide associates with hands-on practice on simulated legal matters.
Show Notes
[00:01:14] Abdi's early entrepreneurial experiences managing a cafe and starting a t-shirt business in college
[00:08:02] Why Abdi decided to start another company after previous exits
[00:10:25] Overview of what AltaClaro does
[00:17:38] Issues with the traditional law firm training model
[00:23:00] Explanation of the learning science principles AltaClaro leverages
[00:34:59] Training trends Abdi sees law firms requesting for 2023
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