AltaClaro’s Post

Thanks also to Dan Roe of The American Lawyer for your piece on law firms training summers on #promptengineering for #generativeAI. We're thrilled to be helping incredible firms like K&L Gates and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP train their associates and summers on this technology. In this piece, our CEO Abdi Shayesteh talks about the importance of vendor-agnostic prompt engineering training. As more and more tools hit the market, it's key for lawyers to learn the critical thinking skills needed to interact with generative AI. https://lnkd.in/eJxpMbF3

As law firms continue to evolve with the rapid advancements in technology, the latest trend making waves is the integration of generative AI into the training programs for summer associates. This summer, many law firms are stepping up their game by providing hands-on training with AI tools, ensuring their future lawyers are well-equipped for the tech-driven legal landscape...

Interested in how law courses might adapt to genAI? Dan Hunter describes how one assignment set for masters students calls for them to craft essays of the highest possible quality using multiple models... and reflect on the process.

The legal profession is at a pivotal moment. Embracing innovation and fostering a culture of learning are paramount for success. On Tuesday, Jennifer Leonard, Founder of Creative Lawyers and the Former Chief Innovation Officer of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and Executive Director of the School's Future of the Profession program (basically, she's brilliant 💡 ), joined me for a Q&A briefing for the officers of the International Bar Association’s Law Firm Management Committee. Jen is one of the leading experts in the area of innovation in the legal profession.  The topic was innovation and AI and here are some of the key take-aways. 🔌 The Rise of Accessible Technology  The recent availability of an even more powerful free AI model, (Chat GPT 4o.0) marks a significant shift in the legal profession. Now, anyone with a web browser can access cutting-edge tech, potentially providing additional ways to provide AI tools to the legal profession.  Jen said many firms may ask themselves, “Why do we need to innovate if we have these successful and durable models?" Yet some firms are starting to experiment.  As Jen points out, the new free model may reduce lawyers’ skepticism. 🎭 Design Workshops and Innovation Hackathons These collaborative sessions are crucial to fostering creativity in legal practice. By bringing together diverse perspectives and facilitating idea generation, firms can break free from traditional thinking and find innovative solutions to complex problems. 🌎 Cultural Shifts for Success Transforming the culture within law firms is essential for sustainable innovation. This requires leadership buy-in, a growth mindset, and a willingness to challenge existing norms. Creating a supportive environment where all voices are valued, beyond the lawyers, is crucial for driving meaningful change. “The moment we are in right now,” says Jen, “requires nearly an all hands on deck multidisciplinary multifunction approach to change.” 🏫 Every Law Firm Leader Should be a Chief Learning Officer To thrive in the future, law firms must prioritize continuous learning and development. By investing in professional growth, firms can empower their teams to adapt to new technologies, think creatively, and deliver exceptional client service. Innovation doesn't have to be grand; even minor improvements can significantly impact efficiency and client satisfaction. “I can’t overstate the leadership challenge that firms will face in the next five to ten years,” says Jen. By leveraging 🏋♂️ accessible technology, embracing collaborative workshops, and cultivating a forward-thinking mindset, law firms can navigate challenges and seize opportunities in an ever-changing landscape.

Are you ready for the future of legal education? Check out this thought-provoking article discussing the potential shift from traditional law school curriculum to incorporating machine learning and other cutting-edge technologies into the LLB program. How do you think this change will impact the legal profession? Share your thoughts below! #LegalEducation #FutureofLaw #MachineLearning #LLB Read more here: https://hubs.la/Q02wDQq30

Indeed. And perhaps another approach to firms developing our younger lawyers is to get them to focus on the question - What do clients look for in a lawyer? A consigliere? A trusted advisor? Clients’ perception of a lawyer in this regard is the same all through the ages. The difference is that with generative AI now invading the output of legal research and various other tasks, must our young lawyers confront this question much earlier in their journey as a lawyer? Must firms engage their young lawyers when they are newly minted instead of waiting to discuss question in partnership entry discussions? Do young lawyers accept that they have to confront this question when they start out as a freshly minted lawyer? Should law schools engage them on this question as part of their learning there?

One of the key challenges in utilizing AI in Law revolves around its impact on the training of junior associates. With AI potentially excelling in entry-level tasks such as research, drafting, and document review, the legal community faces the task of reevaluating traditional training methods. CJ Menon highlighted this concern at the recent Law Soc Litigation Conference, emphasizing the need for collective action by the legal community to address this issue. For a thought-provoking perspective on reshaping junior associate training, Jordan Furlough offers a prescriptive vision in his insightful article. His article explores new approaches to developing the next generation of legal professionals, and provides a prescription of what this new training regime may look like. As a former lawyer, a legal technology provider with access to cutting edge tools and a specialist in automating dispute resolution processes, I am more than happy to support any initiative on re-designing formative training of junior associates. https://lnkd.in/gfup6kG8 #AI #LegalIndustry #JuniorAssociates #LegalTraining #FutureofLaw #LegalCommunity

This week in my multipart LLM series, I'm going to be covering what playgrounds are. That's right, playgrounds. What: Think of a "playground" in an LLM program like a special area where let's say graduate law students get to learn and practice law in a more hands-on way. It's not a physical playground like the ones you had as a child; instead, it's like a zone within their studies where they can experiment with legal ideas, work on real legal projects, or take unique law courses that let them put what they've learned into action. So, it's a space where they can explore and apply their legal knowledge in a more practical and interactive manner. Why: Playgrounds in LLM programs are like practice areas you can essentially test things out. They're important because they let anyone apply what they've learned in real situations, such as the legal example above. Things like helping real clients or participating in mock trials. This hands-on experience helps you train the LLM for better accuracy and could even help a law student become a better lawyer someday. Part 4/12 in the series, stay tuned! #llm #ai

I’ve been distracted from finalizing my full legal genAI syllabus and set of legal prompt engineering exercises (to be posted soon) by the need to finalise the final assessment for my legaltech class. It was always going to some kind of essay on the effect of generative AI on the legal profession, but the problem with teaching law students prompt engineering is that they’re now *really* good at getting LLMs to write the essay for them. This is hardly news—every educator has been confronting this issue for months now. The normal response is to ban the use of LLMs or ban them for everything except brainstorming or some such, but I’ve told the students that I expect and indeed *demand* that they use LLMs in the writing of their essays. How do we square that circle? Turns out it’s easy and useful. 25% of the grade for this assessment will be the final essay, and I will expect a really high standard. But 75% of the grade will be the report that they write about how they created the essay. So: which prompts did they use, which parts did they have to extract to have rewritten, how did they use multiple models to cover their tracks so that they don’t trip the GPTZero detector, etc etc? This way they not only get to write an interesting essay that talks to a relevant concern about genAI in law, but more importantly get to be reflective about their use of the technology and improve their LLM skills in the process. I’ll put this assessment/exercise into the repo that I’m developing for teaching genAI in law, along with other assessment exercises in various prompting techniques. And this is not just for law schools. For those in L&D in law/professional services firms and corporates who are thinking about how they improve prompt engineering skills among their lawyers, I think this is a perfect approach for this environment. Just swap out the essay topic for a contract drafting exercise, and have your people document their processes for improving the end product. This kind of reflective journaling has been shown to improve learning outcomes by a lot. I’ll write this drafting one up as an exercise and post it as well.