In Thomson Reuters, Bryce Engelland explores how AI-powered simulations are emerging as a concrete answer to the associate training problem and highlights AltaClaro's approach at the center of that conversation.
The piece captures a key theme from Legalweek 2026: the traditional law firm pyramid is losing its foundation as AI compresses tasks that once took hours. But alongside the anxiety, Engelland notes, people were building answers.
In the panel "Developing the Future Lawyer," AltaClaro CEO Abdi Shayesteh laid out the core problem with precision: a growing gap in critical thinking among associates, templates getting copy-pasted without relevance analysis, and traditional training methods — videos, lectures, passive learning — that don't fix it. His analogy was blunt:
"You don't learn to swim by watching videos. You need to jump into the deep end."
Shayesteh's solution: AI-powered simulations. Not hypothetical ones, but working deposition simulations available today, with real-time AI feedback, where associates can practice cross-examination, deal with opposing counsel objections, and build the muscle memory that used to require years of live experience.
Kate Orr, Managing Director of Practice Innovation at Orrick, added that AI simulations allow associates to fail behind closed doors, a radical improvement over the old model, where failure often happened directly in front of partners. The tool isn't just for juniors either. Even experienced lawyers are using simulations to test different approaches and sharpen arguments.