Ep 219: Training Lawyers to Use Generative AI, with AltaClaro Founder Abdi Shayesteh

09/26/23 • 42 min

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As generative AI sweeps through the legal profession, lawyers face challenges in learning to use it responsibly and properly. This summer, one of the world’s largest law firms, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, began to address that challenge by partnering with the legal skills training company AltaClaro to develop a training program for its summer associates on prompt engineering and the responsible use of generative AI.

On this episode of LawNext, host Bob Ambrogi is joined by Abdi Shayesteh, the founder and CEO of AltaClaro, a company that takes a unique experiential approach to lawyer training. They talk about the genesis and development of that AI training program, and what it covers. Shayesteh also provides an update on the company’s growth and development since he was last on this podcast in January 2021 – a period during which the company raised a seed financing round of $2.5 million and substantially expanded its menu of course modules.

When Shaesteh, a serial entrepreneur who became a lawyer, saw how poorly prepared new associates were to practice law, he began to research education science and came up with the concept for AltaClaro. Today, its customers include law firms who use it to train associates and individual lawyers seeking to develop and enhance their skills in areas such as drafting contracts, handling M&A transactions, or closing a commercial loan deal.

Thank You To Our Sponsors

This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.

Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.
Universal Migrator, the easiest way to move your firm’s data and documents from one app to another.
Trial Pad, an easy-to-use app to organize, annotate, and present evidence

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Thank You To Our Sponsors

This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.

Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.
Universal Migrator, the easiest way to move your firm’s data and documents from one app to another.
Trial Pad, an easy-to-use app to organize, annotate, and present evidence

If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Previous Episode

Ep 218: Lawmatics Founder Matt Spiegel On Automating CRM for Law Firms

Stories are increasingly common of lawyers who leave law practice to start legal technology companies, but few achieve the level of success as an entrepreneur of Matt Spiegel. He was a criminal defense lawyer in 2009 when he founded MyCase, one of the earliest cloud-based law practice management companies. In 2012, he sold MyCase to AppFolio, and then left the company in 2015 to start a software company that helped organizations manage trade shows and events. In 2017, he returned to law to start his current company, Lawmatics, a client relationship management (CRM) platform for law firms.

Spiegel was previously on episode 16 of this podcast in 2018, not long after he founded Lawmatics. He developed the product because he saw a gap in the legal market for software that would help firms automate their marketing and run their businesses as sales organizations. In the years since, he has raised $12.5 million in funding, expanded the platform with time-and-billing and e-payments capabilities, and added a generative AI feature to help law firms create and edit client emails and email marketing campaigns.

In this episode of LawNext, Spiegel shares his story as a serial legal tech entrepreneur, discusses why he founded Lawmatics, describes how the platform automates legal marketing and relationship management, and talks about his future plans for the company and the platform.

Thank You To Our Sponsors

This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.

Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.
Universal Migrator, the easiest way to move your firm’s data and documents from one app to another.
Trial Pad, an easy-to-use app to organize, annotate, and present evidence

If you enjoy listening to LawNext, please leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts.

Next Episode

Ep 220: June Hsiao Liebert, President of the American Association of Law Libraries, On AI and the Future of Law Librarians

On July 27, June Hsiao Liebert took office as president of the American Association of Law Libraries, the association that represents more than 3,600 law librarians and legal information professionals throughout the world. The first Asian-American president of AALL, Liebert takes office at a time when some are saying that advances in artificial intelligence could endanger the future of the law library professional. What’s her take on the state of the profession today and its prospects for the future? That is the subject we explore on today’s show.

In her day job, Liebert is the director of information services at the law firm O’Melveny & Myers. Having worked as a chief information officer, library and information governance director, law professor, and legal technology consultant, she has an extensive background in both IT and information management. She is a 2021 Fastcase 50 award honoree, was recently named a fellow-elect of the College of Law Practice Management, and serves as the immediate past co-chair of the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering Alumni Board.

Note that the opinions she expresses during the podcast are hers alone and not those of O’Melveny & Myers. Also, any law-related usage of AI that she refers to in the podcast are done purely for testing purposes using private and secure systems only.

Thank You To Our Sponsors

This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their support and hope you will check them out.

Paradigm, home to the practice management platforms PracticePanther, Bill4Time, MerusCase and LollyLaw; the e-payments platform Headnote; and the legal accounting software TrustBooks.
Universal Migrator, the easiest way to move your firm’s data and documents from one app to another.
Trial Pad, an easy-to-use app to organize, annotate, and present evidence