All human beings including lawyers have implicit biases. Indeed, such biases result from natural biochemical processes and reactions in the human brain. Knowing the science of implicit bias enhances our understanding of reactive human behavior while also providing key indicators to avoid significant liability outcomes.

This CLE course, presented by Professor Bruce Adelson, will include his scholarship at Georgetown University School of Medicine and University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He will focus on the intersection of microaggressive behavior, hostile comments, and bias responses and the impact to the legal profession. Professor Adelson will demonstrate how such conduct can create legal liability and worsen outcomes for clients, patients, customers, coworkers, and more.

He will use various court cases and EEOC complaints because such decisions involving clearly deleterious behavior inform the greater discussion about bias and discrimination. We will address DEI commitments and the current trend of challenging DEI programs in higher education and business. Professor Adelson reveals how diverse, tolerant workplace are often more productive and more profitable than their alternatives, while also discussing potential responses to DEI lawsuits and federal agency investigations.

Learning Objectives:

• I. Review the biological and biochemical origins of implicit bias
• II. Identify recommendations for identifying implicit bias and preventing its legally problematic manifestations
• III. Examine how diverse, tolerant, and inclusive organizations produce better, more profitable outputs
• IV. Discuss how best to answer the rhetorical question, What Do You Do, as practicing lawyers faced with the examples used
• V. Examine the state of DEI today