Law School Edition: Motivated Reasoning and Legal Ethics

This version of the program has been modified for law school students and does NOT offer CLE credit. 

Attorneys looking for CLE credit should click here: Motivated Reasoning and Legal Ethics 2025 | On-Demand Program - PLI for the CLE-approved version. 

Full scholarships and discounts to attend PLI programs are widely available to attorneys working in nonprofit/legal services organizations, pro bono attorneys, government attorneys, judges and judicial law clerks, law professors and law students, senior attorneys (age 65 and over), law librarians and paralegals who work for nonprofit/legal services organizations, unemployed attorneys; and others with financial hardships. We encourage all eligible attendees to complete and submit a PLI Scholarship Application.

Motivated reasoning can lead attorneys to act unethically or remain silent in the face of unethical behavior. Even after these ethical lapses, attorneys might continue to believe that they have done nothing wrong.

The program will explain, in detail, what motivated reasoning is, describe and demonstrate the most common social-cognitive biases that comprise motivated reasoning.

The program will provide strategies to help attorneys recognize and overcome common biases, so they behave ethically. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct will be mentioned and referred to at times in discussion, scenarios, and examples.

After completing the program, participants will be able to:

• Recognize that they are subject to making poor decisions due to motivated reasoning.
• Recognize that they are subject to behaving unethically without intending to do so.
• Identify the most common cognitive biases and social influences that contribute to motivated reasoning.
• Identify common factors that can lead to poor decisions, unethical behaviors, or inaction.
• Implement strategies to address and overcome the factors that could otherwise lead to poor decisions, unethical behavior, or inaction.
• Create an environment where an attorney is more likely to follow the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

This program will be useful to all attorneys in their practice of the law.

This program is from PLI's Interactive Learning Center. It offers a high level of participant engagement and requires more program interactions than a traditional program.

1. Welcome (2:32 Minutes)

2. What is Motivated Reasoning and Why Should I Care? (8:17 Minutes)

3. Motivated Reasoning Biases in Action (10:54 Minutes)

4. Motivated Reasoning: Social Influences, Biases, and Consequences (14:05 Minutes)

5. Capstone Activity (15:04 Minutes)

6. Planning to Overcome Motivated Reasoning Biases (9:24 Minutes)

Total runtime: 1:00:14

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