The Importance of Unconscious Bias Training in the Law Profession
/Unconscious bias can create significant barriers to the creation of truly diverse and inclusive law organizations. To break through those barriers, unconscious bias training can help.
The legal community is beginning to make strides toward rectifying the industry’s decades-long diversity problem. The Mansfield Rule is changing the way that law candidates are recruited, interviewed, and promoted, urban debate leagues are creating support networks and pipelines for talented young students to pursue a career in law, and law firms and corporate law departments are adopting initiatives to help weave diversity into the DNA of their organizations.
One of the most impactful inclusion initiatives being implemented by law firms and corporate legal teams are programs designed to raise awareness and understanding of unconscious bias. Acknowledging how stereotypes and outward appearances can unconsciously affect how people make decisions, along with learning strategies to overcome those unconscious biases can significantly increase and promote diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.
Not only do diversity initiatives and unconscious bias training provide participating organizations with a competitive business and financial advantage over their less-diverse competitors, but it is also good for business in another way. Attorneys who are informed and knowledgeable on the topic of unconscious bias are better suited to serve and advise their clients. They are acutely aware of the potential impact that unconscious bias can have on decision-making processes, making them better equipped to counsel their clients and help them moderate risk.
What is unconscious bias?
Unconscious bias (or implicit bias) can be described as unfounded judgments or prejudice in favor of or against a group, someone, or something in a manner that is generally considered unjust. As opposed to explicit bias, which is defined as deliberate or conscious bias, unconscious bias is believed to be human nature—a naturally occurring inclination to help us to derive quick conclusions based on past experiences. As a result of these swift judgments, some people benefit and others are chastised, most often based on factors like gender, race, age, ethnicity, class, etc.
Unconscious bias introduces unintentional discrimination in the workplace, which can result in high turnover, poor decision-making, and a loss of business. It is also particularly destructive to the way in which work is assigned and evaluated in law firms and corporate law departments.
For example, a recent study found that partners who reviewed a memo written by a fictitious African American male associate found more errors and provided more negative feedback than the same exact memo written by a fictitious white male associate. Everything but the writer’s race was identical, making race the only factor contributing to the disparity in their scores.
Although this type of discrimination can be described as a learned human condition, our discriminatory tendencies should be acknowledged and resisted.
How to combat unconscious bias
Law firms are now formally incorporating programs designed to raise awareness and a better understanding of the implications that unconscious bias can have on their diversity and inclusivity efforts. These training programs include information about how such biases can be recognized and combated by everyone within an organization, along with the societal dynamics that create and perpetuate unconscious bias at large.
For more information on conducting unconscious bias training, the American Bar Association has developed a comprehensive toolkit for use in exploring unconscious bias, along with strategies geared toward “debiasing” legal teams, specifically.
The benefits of unconscious bias training
A law organization’s awareness about and attention to unconscious bias and its extreme implications can set it apart in significant ways. Legal teams who incorporate formal training programs are able to:
Attract and retain diverse talent
Produce superior, collaborative outcomes
Diversify areas of expertise
Generate higher levels of creativity
Enhance professional relationships
Attract new business from companies who also value diversity and inclusion
Gain a competitive advantage over more antiquated competitors
Foster a greater appreciation for equality, diversity, and inclusion
While confronting unconscious bias is not an easy task, supervising attorneys must be held accountable for addressing their unconscious biases and ensure that they think critically about how they distribute assignments and evaluate diverse associates. It is a crucial step in addressing and amending the diversity issue in our country’s law community. Beyond that, this skill may also help individuals become better lawyers in various aspects of their profession that require accurate, unbiased assessments.
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