Michelman & Robinson, a midsize firm based in Los Angeles, turned some heads in the legal industry a few years ago when its leaders raised first-year associate salary to $230,000, outpacing the going rate for new hires in Big Law.

But salary isn’t the only place where the firm has been making investments in its junior lawyers. Starting back in 2019, litigation partners at the firm began developing an in-house training course, referred to internally as “TAP,” to train junior litigators in the basics of trial advocacy. The program now culminates with an event bringing associates together in teams for a mock trial experience, complete with a retired judge on the bench and mock jurors brought in from an outside service.