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Webinar: “Blind Justice? — Implicit Racial Bias in the Justice System”
Is justice color-blind? Research reveals that we all have unconscious and unintended biases based on race, gender, age, disability, and other similar factors. Join us for an engaging, informative, and thought-provoking discussion exploring how — and to what extent — implicit racial bias may taint both our civil and criminal justice systems . . . and what we can do to achieve more intentional and equitable results.
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Presented by the Professional Development Committee and the Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
About the Presenters
Hon. Bernice B. Donald
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Ret.)
Co-Editor, Extending Justice: Strategies to Increase Inclusion & Reduce Bias (2022)
Co-Author, Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias (2017)
THE HONORABLE BERNICE B. DONALD was nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit by President Barack Hussein Obama on December 1, 2010 and re-nominated in January of 2011. She was confirmed by the Senate on September 6, 2011, becoming the first African American woman to serve on that court. Prior to joining the Sixth Circuit, Judge Donald served as the first African American female jurist on the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, to which she was appointed by President William Jefferson Clinton in December of 1995. From June of 1988 to January of 1996, Judge Donald served on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Tennessee; she was the first African American woman to serve as a bankruptcy judge in the history of the United States.
When she was elected to the Shelby County General Sessions Criminal Court in 1982, Judge Donald became the first African American woman to serve as a judge in the history of the state of Tennessee.
Judge Donald received her law degree from the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphrey’s School of Law, where she later served as a member of the Alumni and Law Alumni Boards of Directors and as an adjunct faculty member. She frequently serves on the faculty of the National Judicial College and the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), and she was a member of the FJC’s Board of Directors from 2003 through 2007. In 1996, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist appointed Judge Donald to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Bankruptcy Rules, where she served for six years. In 2011, Chief Justice John G. Roberts appointed her to an indefinite term on the Judicial Branch Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Judge Donald is extremely active in the American, National, Tennessee, and Memphis Bar Associations, as well as in the Ben F. Jones chapter of the National Bar Association, serving in vital leadership roles on key committees. In August of 2014, Judge Donald began serving Chair-Elect of the ABA Criminal Justice Section; she will become Chair in 2015. Judge Donald is also the 2014 Litigation Section Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates; co-chair of the Task Force on Implicit Bias for the ABA Litigation Section; co-chair of the Committee on Diversity for the ABA Tort, Trial, and Insurance Section; and co-chair of the Program Committee for the National Bar Association Judicial Council. Judge Donald currently serves as a member of the ABA House of Delegates, the ABA Nominating Committee, the ABA Africa Law Initiative, and the section leadership for the ABA Criminal Justice and Labor and Employment Law Sections.
She previously served as the President of the American Bar Foundation, where she was the first African American to hold that position. From 2003 through 2011, Judge Donald served on the Board of Editors of the American Bar Journal. And in August of 2011, she concluded a three-year term as Secretary of the 430,000 member ABA, where she was the first African American woman to serve as an officer since the organization’s founding in 1878.
In August of 2014, Judge Donald received the 2014 John H. Pickering Achievement Award from the Senior Lawyers Division of the ABA. The Pickering Award is given to a lawyer or judge who has demonstrated outstanding legal ability throughout her career, compiled a distinguished record of dedicated service to the profession and community at large, and made significant contributions to the furtherance of access to justice for all. In January of 2014, Judge Donald served as a Judge-in-Residence at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and received the Justice William Brennan Award from the University of Virginia. In 2013, Judge Donald was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Judicature Society and was featured in the Federal Bar Association’s magazine, The Federal Lawyer. She also received the Difference Makers Award from the Solo, Small Firm & General Practice Division of the ABA and the Pioneer Award from her graduating class at East Side High. During the 2013 annual meeting of the National Bar Association, Judge Donald received the Judicial Council’s William H. Hastie Award. The Hastie Award is the Judicial Council’s highest award and is presented to recognize excellence in legal and judicial scholarship and demonstrated commitment to justice under the law. In 2008, Judge Donald was awarded the Liberty Achievement Award from the ABA Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section in honor of her active participation in promoting diversity within the legal profession.
Judge Donald has served as faculty for numerous international judicial training and legal/technical capacity building programs, including programs in Romania, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, Bosnia, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania, Russia, Egypt, Morocco, Thailand, Armenia, Jamaica, and Manila. She also has lectured in various republics of the former Soviet Union, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazan, Moscow, Krasnodar, and Batumi, Georgia. In 2003, Judge Donald led a People to People delegation to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. She also traveled to Zimbabwe to monitor the trial of a judge accused of judicial misconduct.
Judge Donald has served as President of the National Association of Women Judges and the Association of Women Attorneys. She has chaired numerous legal, judicial, and civic organizations and served a two-year term as Chair of The Memphis Diversity Institute. She also has worked with Leadership Memphis to provide leadership training for Memphis Housing Authority residents. In June of 2005, Judge Donald co-founded 4-Life, a skills training and enrichment program for students who range in age from six to fifteen years, designed to teach children to become positive, productive citizens. She is working to implement the program in schools located in areas of concentrated poverty. Currently, Judge Donald serves on the Board of Directors of the Stax Museum of American Soul and the Stax Academy Charter School. She has authored several articles with her law clerks, including Not Your Father’s Legal Profession: Technology, Globalization, Diversity, and the Future of Law Practice in the United States, 44 U. MEM. L. REV. 645 (2014) and Bringing Back Reasonable Inferences: A Short, Simple Suggestion for Addressing Some Problems at the Intersection of Employment Discrimination and Summary Judgment, 57 N.Y.L. SCH. L. REV. 749 (2012–2013).
Prof. Sarah E. Redfield (Emerita)
University of New Hampshire School of Law
Co-Editor, Extending Justice: Strategies to Increase Inclusion & Reduce Bias (2022)
Editor/Chapter Author, Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias (2017)
Sarah Redfield is Professor Emerita at the University of New Hampshire School of Law. She is a member of the Maine Bar.
Education law is her primary practice and teaching area. Her research and scholarship are focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) along the education pipeline from preschool to the professions. Her current work concentrates on unintentional bias and on strategies to interrupt that bias and reduce the negative consequences of its manifestations in legal, medical, education, and workplace environments.
Professor Redfield has decades of experience presenting and training judges, lawyers, educators, and other professionals from all areas of practice and all parts of the country on DEI issues; more recently her work has included work with NGOs interested in improving their diversity and equity profile. She has a record of demonstrated success in facilitating substantive positive organizational and individual change.
Professor Redfield is a nationally known and highly respected author, presenter, and trainer. Her most recent DEI presentations include work with the American Bar Association (ABA) Civil Rights & Social Justice, Litigation, and Criminal Justice Sections; the Museum of Native American History; the Tennessee and Houston Bar Associations; law school faculty; other law practices; and state regulatory agencies.
Professor Redfield is the editor and chapter author of the ABA book on implicit bias, Enhancing Justice: Reducing Bias and co-editor of the upcoming book, Extending Justice: Strategies to Increase Inclusion & Reduce Bias. With Judge Bernice Donald, Professor Redfield is Co-Chair of the Criminal Justice Section Implicit Bias Initiative. She also currently serves on several high-level ABA diversity initiatives including the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Council and the Criminal Justice Section Women’s Task Force.
Professor Redfield earned her B.A. degree from Mount Holyoke College, her J.D. degree from Northeastern University School of Law, her LL.M. from Harvard Law School, and a Certificate in Diversity Equity and Inclusion from Cornell. Prior to her teaching career, Professor Redfield served as Assistant Attorney General and Associate Commissioner of Agriculture for the State of Maine.
Professor Redfield is the proud mother of two young adults, Alex Redfield and Althea Rose Redfield and the ecstatic grandmother of Harriet Redfield.
Registration
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Registration for this webinar will close on Thursday, April 13 at 2:00 pm ET.
Attendees will receive the zoom streaming link in their confirmation email. Streaming information will also be circulated via email after registration closes the day prior to the webinar date.
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- Nonmember: $75
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CLE
CLE: 1.0 CLE Credit (pending)
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