Unconscious Bias: How to Recognize and Disrupt Its Impact on Your Decision-Making Process

There are two types of bias: conscious bias with which we are most familiar and unconscious bias which is very difficult to identify and eliminate from our thought process. This presentation will focus on unconscious bias (also known as implicit bias) and provide ways to identify our own biases that may surface in the law office. Microaggressions (also known as micro-inequities) will be explained along with its root cause of unconscious bias. We conclude with strategies to disrupt microaggressions and unconscious bias in the workplace and the legal profession.

The agenda includes:

• Unconscious bias defined and its impact on decision-making explained—10 minutes
• Examples of law office unconscious bias and strategies for disruption—10 minutes
• Microaggressions/micro-inequities defined, and common legal profession examples identified—15 minutes
• Strategies to disrupt unconscious bias in your decision-making process—15 minutes
• Strategies to eliminate microaggressions in the legal profession –10 minutes

Faculty:

Sharon E. Jones, Partner/Chief Diversity Equity and Inclusion Officer, Haynes and Boone, LLP