Home
All Resources
Consilio Advanced Learning Institute

A Framework for Recognizing and Overcoming Implicit Bias in the Legal Profession

Written by Annie Malloy

Updated: May 08, 2024

Authors

Maureen O’Neill

Senior Vice President, Strategic Engagement

About Author

Maureen O’Neill is the Senior Vice President of Strategic Engagement. Drawing on more than 25 years of experience providing dedicated client service as an attorney and consultant, Maureen engages with Consilio’s customers to ensure a best-in-class client experience. She works cross-functionally across the company to develop and deploy best practices that embed Consilio’s commitment to service excellence, and to deliver the highest levels of quality and value. She seeks opportunities to create differentiating moments for clients—from bespoke educational sessions to loyalty programs to peer networking events—to foster client satisfaction and loyalty. Maureen also serves as Consilio’s Diversity & Inclusion Officer. She leads the development and implementation of the company’s strategies, policies, and programs for ensuring a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace.

More from the author

Summary

If you’re human, you have biases. There’s no way to change this—the human brain is evolutionarily wired to take shortcuts in our decision-making. In the modern world, these shortcuts cause all of us to have implicit or unconscious biases around race, gender, and other inherent characteristics of our fellow humans.

The important question, then, isn’t whether you’re biased; it’s what you’re doing about it. That applies equally to individuals and to the organizations in which they work. This paper explores how implicit bias affects the legal profession and what law firms and corporate legal departments can do about it.

In this Whitepaper

  • What implicit or unconscious bias is
  • The impacts it has in the legal industry
  • Systemic responses to implicit bias

Key Insights

  • The importance of bias interrupters
  • The value of objective criteria
  • The potential impact of the Mansfield Rule

Summary

If you’re human, you have biases. There’s no way to change this—the human brain is evolutionarily wired to take shortcuts in our decision-making. In the modern world, these shortcuts cause all of us to have implicit or unconscious biases around race, gender, and other inherent characteristics of our fellow humans.

The important question, then, isn’t whether you’re biased; it’s what you’re doing about it. That applies equally to individuals and to the organizations in which they work. This paper explores how implicit bias affects the legal profession and what law firms and corporate legal departments can do about it.

In this Whitepaper

  • What implicit or unconscious bias is
  • The impacts it has in the legal industry
  • Systemic responses to implicit bias

Key Insights

  • The importance of bias interrupters
  • The value of objective criteria
  • The potential impact of the Mansfield Rule

Fill out the form below to download the complete insight.

Comoros
Congo
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Curaçao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Côte d'Ivoire
Denmark
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Sign up for Consilio updates

Discover, learn and grow with the latest insights from Consilio
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
By clicking Subscribe you are confirming that you agree with our Privacy Policy
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.