presented by

William A. Ingram Inn 
American Inns of Court

Heafey Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy
Santa Clara University School of Law

6:00 – 6:45 p.m. Reception – Adobe Lodge
7:00 – 8:15 p.m. Panel Discussion – Recital Hall, Music and Dance Building

Free of Charge
1.25 hours of MCLE ethics credit available

PLEASE RSVP HERE NO LATER THAN JANUARY 12, 2018

PROGRAM:

Implicit Bias in the Legal System: An Assessment and Recommendations

The 2018 Symposium addresses the topic of implicit bias and its effects on the fair and impartial adjudication of disputes in our courts and, more broadly, in the administration of justice. Do the implicit (or unconscious) biases of attorneys, judges, jurors affect their decision-making in the legal system? How can concerned judges and attorneys anticipate and address instances of juror bias? How viable is the theory of implicit bias in the realm of judicial decision-making and how should courts and responsible governmental units address the prospect of prejudicially influenced decision makers? To what extent do policy officers exhibit implicit racial bias in the discharge of their duties in the administration of the criminal justice system and how can such unconscious bias be overcome by police?

The 2018 Symposium addresses these current and important issues in judicial decision-making and the role of courts in providing fair and impartial forums for resolving civil disputes and charges of criminal conduct. The symposium discussion will feature a presentation by two leading experts and scholars on the subject of implicit bias in the legal system:

Judge Mark W. Bennett is Senior District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa and a nationally known expert on the administration of justice in the courts. He has authored 23 law review articles and numerous other articles on the subjects of implicit bias in the legal system including an empirical study of implicit bias in sentencing; Afrocentric facial feature and skin tone bias; cognitive anchoring bias in sentencing; witness questioning by jurors; witness memory, demeanor and credibility; white collar sentencing, and others. His scholarship focuses on institutional reform initiatives on current issues affecting the administration of justice, often at the intersection of cognitive psychology and the law. His article on implicit bias in jury selection in the Harvard Law & Policy Review is one of the leading critiques of unconscious bias in the legal system and is frequently cited by leading scholars of implicit bias in the courts. He has trained more than 1500 trial and appellate judges from Alaska to Florida on the implicit bias in the legal system and has published more than 1400 judicial opinions. He was featured in the BBC documentary, “The House I Live In” which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and focused on critiquing mandatory minimum sentencing in drug cases. Judge Bennett was appointed in 1994, and served as Chief Judge from 2000 to 2006.He took senior status in June of 2015 but he still manages an active docket and frequently sits by designation on the Ninth Circuit. He has spoken at more than 500 CLE programs in 38 states and several foreign countries.

Dean L. Song Richardson is Interim Dean and Professor of Law at the University of California Irvine School of Law and a nationally known scholar and an award winning teacher  who uses interdisciplinary research to study criminal procedure, criminal law and policing. Dean Richardson is a prolific scholar with influential articles, books and chapters on current topics such as implicit racial bias in the criminal justice system, racial violence in our communities, and police arrest “efficiency” and the Fourth Amendment.  Her published articles have appeared in the Yale Law Journal (including her 2017 article titled “Systemic Triage: Implicit Racial Bias in the Criminal Courtroom”), the Iowa Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, the Indiana Law Review and others, and she is co-author of one of the leading text books on criminal procedure used in law schools.   A former state and federal public defender, she served as Assistant Counsel at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute.  Dean Richardson recently succeeded Dean Erwin Chemerinsky (who was a speaker at the 2017 Judge William Ingram Symposium) as Dean of the University of California Irvine School of Law.

Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Donald J. Polden, Director of the Heafey Center for Trial and Appellate Advocacy at Santa Clara University School of Law, will serve as moderator of the Symposium.

This activity has been approved for MCLE credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1.25 hours for ethics. Santa Clara University School of Law certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.

If you have a disability and require a reasonable accommodation, please call Noelia McKeever at (408) 554-4630 one-week prior to the event.