Webinar: Implicit Bias in the Law, the Court System, the Legal Community, and your Legal Career

28th Annual Judge Alvin B. Rubin Symposium

The Annual Judge Alvin B. Rubin Symposium is a living memorial to Judge Rubin’s contribution to federal jurisprudence and legal scholarship. Join the Symposium for a webinar on Implicit Bias in the Law, the Court System, the Legal Community, and your Legal Career. Dean L. Song Richardson, who studies the effect of cognitive and social psychology on decision-making and judgment, will introduce the topic of unconscious bias and speak about its effect on attorneys’ judgment. In particular, Dean Richardson will address how attitudes and stereotypes affect attorneys’ understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner, and its effect on women and minorities in the legal profession. Along with the other panel members, Dean Richardson will explore how attorneys can spot implicit bias and actions firms can take to de-bias attorneys’ decision-making.

Registration is now closed.

About the Presenters

Judge Susie Morgan, District Judge, U.S. District Court – EDLA
Judge Morgan graduated from the LSU Law Center where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. After graduation, she clerked for Judge Henry Politz of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal. Judge Morgan handled complex civil litigation before being appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama in 2012. Judge Morgan now serves on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, which sits in New Orleans.

Kathlyn Perez, Perez Law, LLC
Ms. Perez is an attorney and consultant whose hybrid practice focuses on all aspects of the employment relationship. For more than a decade, she has represented all types and sizes of businesses ensuring compliance with federal, state and local laws, counseling on employee relations issues, conducting internal investigations, negotiating employment contracts and severances, and defending employment litigation. In addition, she conducts legal, management and leadership training on topics such as anti-harassment, diversity and inclusion, implicit bias, and generational and change management. At her prior firm, she was active on the Women’s Initiative Leadership team as its national Programming Co-Chair and New Orleans Committee Chair and in the firm-wide Diversity Committee as a D&I and implicit bias mitigation trainer. Ms. Perez graduated magna cum laude from Tulane University School of Law and resides in New Orleans with her husband, who is also an attorney, and their two young children.

Dean L. Song Richardson, University of California, Irvine School of Law
L. Song Richardson is the Dean and Chancellor’s Professor of Law at the University of California, Irvine School of Law with joint appointments in the Department of Criminology, Law and Society and in the Department of Asian American Studies. She received her AB from Harvard College and her JD from Yale Law School. Her interdisciplinary research uses lessons from cognitive and social psychology to study decision-making and judgment in a variety of contexts. Her scholarship has been published by law journals at Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Duke and Northwestern, among others. Her co-edited book, The Constitution and the Future of Criminal Justice in America, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2013. She is a co-editor of Criminal Procedure, Cases and Materials published by West Academic Publishing. Currently, she is working on a book that examines the history of race in the U.S. and its implications for law and policy.

Dean Richardson’s legal career has included partnership at a boutique criminal law firm and work as a state and federal public defender in Seattle, Washington. She was also an Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. Immediately upon graduation from law school, Dean Richardson was a Skadden Arps Public Interest Fellow with the National Immigration Law Center in Los Angeles and the Legal Aid Society’s Immigration Unit in Brooklyn, NY. A leading expert on implicit racial and gender bias, Richardson is frequently invited to speak to law firms, district attorney and public defender offices, police departments, universities, judges, bar associations, and private industry across the nation about the science of implicit bias and its influence on decisions, perceptions, and judgments. She also presents her work at academic symposia and non-academic legal conferences.

She has won numerous awards and recognitions, including the American Association of Law School’s Derrick Bell Award, which recognizes a faculty member’s extraordinary contributions to legal education through mentoring, teaching, and scholarship. She was recently named one of the Top Women Lawyers in California by The Daily Journal, one of the 100 Most Influential business and opinion shapers in Orange County, and one of the two most influential Korean Americans in OC.

William Snowden, Vera Institute of Justice
Will is the director of Vera’s New Orleans office. In this role, he continues and strengthens Vera’s existing partnerships with criminal justice actors and community leaders while identifying new collaborative relationships with government entities and community organizations. The collaborations will focus on improving criminal justice systems in the South. Prior to joining Vera, Will was a public defender for five years representing New Orleanians in all stages of a case from arraignment to trial. Will also developed a focus and specialization in advocacy around reforming the procedures, systems, and policies around jury duty in an effort to promote diversity and representativeness in the jury box. Will also launched The Juror Project—an initiative aiming to increase the diversity of jury panels while changing and challenging people’s perspective of jury duty.

Will leads workshops around the country as it relates to how implicit bias, racial anxiety and stereotype threat influence actors and outcomes in the criminal justice system. He received his JD from Seton Hall University School of Law and a BS from the University of Minnesota.

Judge Janis van Meerveld, Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court – EDLA
Judge Janis van Meerveld was sworn in as Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana on July 29, 2016. Judge van Meerveld grew up in Brussels, Belgium, and then graduated from Newcomb College of Tulane University in 1984. She obtained her J.D. from Tulane Law School in 1987, where she served on the Moot Court Board, and as an oralist on the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court team. Judge van Meerveld spent 29 years in private litigation practice, 27 of them with Adams and Reese LLP where she litigated maritime and general insurance cases before she developed a specialization in labor and employment litigation, representing management in all areas of employment law, including class actions, ERISA claims, and Directors and Officers liability claims. She frequently assisted clients in the development of employee policies, procedures and handbooks, advised employers on hiring, discipline, and termination policies and practices, and conducted training on many employment related matters. In the community, Judge van Meerveld serves on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of Boys Hope Girls Hope of New Orleans. She is also a member of the Board of Directors of the New Orleans affiliate of Susan G. Komen.

Registration

Registration Fees

• FBA Member: $0
• Nonmember: $75

How to Register

Registration is now closed.

Cancellation Policy

No refunds will be made for cancellations received after the close of business on April 29, 2020. No-shows will be billed. Substitutions may be made at any time upon notification. Please contact Laura Mulhern at lmulhern@fedbar.org with cancellation and/or substitution requests.

CLE

2 hours of CLE (1 ethics, 1 professionalism) pending. Credit for these complimentary webinars will be processed/reported within 4-6 weeks of the webinar event date and available for credit in states that allow credit for live webinar presentations. Your bar number must be accurate in our database to receive credit.

If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact Laura Mulhern, Sections and Divisions Manager.