In today's competitive legal landscape, law firms consistently invest significant resources to recruit the best law school graduates. However, these freshly-minted lawyers often lack the hands-on skills to immediately address client needs. 

Consequently, partners, responsible for imparting crucial knowledge and skills to associates, often find themselves stretched thin due to pressing client demands. As a result, training can be sporadic and inconsistent, causing disparities in associate skill levels and hindering their on-the-job learning.

Keep reading as we delve into the training challenges that partners face and share three ways that AltaClaro directly reduces training costs and effort—all while providing consistent building blocks that enable junior associates to gain more confidence and job-ready skills.

The Challenges of Training Associates

Ask anyone you know and they’ll tell you that training new employees requires a significant investment of time, resources, and expertise. This is no different for junior associates. Just as a new surgeon would never perform an operation without practice, a new associate can’t be expected to draft and negotiate a contract solely based on the knowledge they gained in law school. 

However, the learning curve for new associates is steep, as they must learn the intricacies of legal practice, including research, writing, client communication, and legal ethics. They must also familiarize themselves with the firm's policies, procedures, and systems. This can be overwhelming, and some associates may struggle to keep up with the workload or feel like they can't contribute to the firm’s success.

Partners who are responsible for training these associates often run into a slew of challenges. Partners have to balance their own workload with training and mentoring new associates, which can be challenging and impact the billable hours of senior team members. Developing up-to-date and effective training content can also be difficult, especially when professional development staff lack subject matter expertise and are unsure of how to tailor training to each individual's needs.

So what options do partners have?

The AltaClaro Training Solution

AltaClaro is a proven legal training solution, leading the way in innovative experiential learning solutions for law firms. By scaling experiential learning for the legal profession, law firms are able to facilitate fast, meaningful training to their attorneys—all while  increasing attorney effectiveness, drastically reducing training and development costs, and reducing unconscious bias. After implementing AltaClaro, our clients found measurable ROI across three different key business objectives:

1. Reduce Training Costs & Effort
2. Improve Efficiency
3. Increase Associate Satisfaction & Retention

Learn more about proven legal training solutions in “The Ultimate Guide to Training Your Transactional Lawyers.”

How AltaClaro Reduces Training Costs & Effort

1. Reduces partner and senior associate time spent on direct training

“AltaClaro saves our partners a ton of time. If they are doing formal training, it's hours prepping, coordinating, and presenting or just all the time day to day explaining the basics."
- Partner, Am Law 50 Firm

Training associates can be time-consuming and expensive, particularly when it impacts the billable hours of senior team members. AltaClaro's experiential training approach alleviates this burden by providing consistent foundational skills through interactive bootcamps. Associates build confidence by applying their learning to mock scenarios, while having access to seasoned practitioner instructors for live review sessions, chats, and discussion groups, all without relying on their supervisors.

Clients interviewed in an independent study reported a 2-3 hours reduction in time spent by each partner and senior associate on direct training per month. 

2. Reduces partner and senior associate time spent on direct training

“Completing a substantive assignment grounded in actual work, plus an hour of review with a highly qualified attorney is a complete game changer in terms of the quality of training we can offer." 
- Partner, Finance Practice Group Leader, Am Law 100 Firm

Developing up-to-date and effective training content can be challenging and time-consuming, especially when professional development staff lack subject matter expertise. AltaClaro offers turnkey legal training programs, designed by experienced subject matter experts, and partners with firms to efficiently establish or enhance associate training initiatives.

Clients interviewed in an independent study reported a 90% reduction in time required to create and manage training programs.

3. Reduces partner time spent reviewing and fixing errors

“After the bootcamp, a first-year was able to issue spot everything I would hope she would catch, and a second-year was catching more advanced things. I barely had to change a word! It made a big difference for me.” 
- Partner, Head of IP Group, Am Law 100 Firm

Partners often have little time to deal with mistakes or duplicate work. AltaClaro's assignments simulate real client challenges, allowing associates multiple opportunities to practice and apply their newly acquired skills. Instructors provide valuable feedback and detailed reviews, ensuring associates have a strong foundation and reducing the need for partners to fix errors or revise drafts.

Clients interviewed in an independent study reported a 90% reduction in time required to create and manage training programs.

Looking for A Proven Legal Training Solution?

There’s a reason why firms such as K&L Gates, Holland & Knight, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, Allen & Overy, and Ropes & Gray trust AltaClaro for their legal skills training. From Fundamentals of M&A Transactions and Corporate Transactions to Capital Markets, our course catalog spans beginner to intermediate level classes. 

With AltaClaro, you can get your associates billing sooner, increase training retention and engagement, and save on resources used for legal skills training. Our online boot camps help lawyers leverage technology and learn practical legal skills in a hybrid format through mock transactions and live feedback sessions with seasoned practitioners. From Fundamentals of M&A Transactions and Corporate Transactions to Capital Markets, our course catalog spans beginner to intermediate level classes. 

Interested?

Schedule a free 30-minute consultation with one of our experts and learn how you can empower your associates to hit the ground running.