Bar leaders need a good understanding of how implicit bias impacts the fair administration of justice. The ABA Diversity & Inclusion 360 Commission has made available a great set of videos and training materials that can be adapted for use by your own bar association. For those of you who will be attending the ABA midyear meeting in Miami this coming February, we hope you will spend part of your Friday with us in conversations about what bar leaders of all generations can do to combat implicit bias.

On  Friday, February 3 we'll meet from 11:45 to 1:15 at the Hilton Miami Downtown with the ABA Young Lawyers Division for lunch, a panel presentation and discussion entitled Cross-Generational Collaboration to Conquer Implicit Bias. The program will be moderated by Kathleen Nalty, a nationally-recognized authority on implicit bias and author of Going 'All-In' on Diversity and Inclusion: The Law Firm Leader's Playbook. We expect to receive one hour MCLE credit for the program.

Kathleen Nalty

After lunch, we'll join with the National Conference of Bar Presidents and the ABA Young Lawyers Division in a Diversity Forum, from 2:40 - 3:40 pm at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Monroe/Tuttle, Terrace Level. Ray Abadin, past president of the Florida Bar will lead a provocative and interactive discussion on the subject of implicit gender bias: what is it? Why does it matter? What can be done to approach this very real dynamic in a way that unifies rather than divides? Whether and how you respond will determine what your association will look like in years to come.

To attend these programs, which are part of the ABA midyear meeting, you must register, but there is no cost to do so, and you need not be an ABA member to register. For more information on registration, click here. 

The National Conference of Women's Bar Associations' Public Service Award and Outstanding Member Program Award are prestigious national awards recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of member women's bar groups large and small. The awards are meant to inspire other women's bar associations to emulate them and to initiate successful programs in their own regions.

Initiated in 1985, the NCWBA Public Service Award is given to bar associations to recognize a wide variety of outstanding and unique public service projects. The types of projects which have won the Public Service Award over the years have taken many different forms and have approached "public service" in a variety of different ways, such as providing pro bono legal services to women in need, training lawyers to do pro bono work, creating educational materials about legal rights and assisting children impacted by some aspect of the legal system.

Initiated in 2008, the NCWBA Outstanding Member Program Award is given to bar associations in recognition of innovative projects, programs and services to benefit their members or the bar association itself. Like the Public Service Award projects, the types of projects which have won the Outstanding Member Program Award over the years have taken many different forms, such as programs encouraging and preparing members to pursue careers in the judiciary and public office, providing mentoring and leadership skills to members, providing members with law practice management skills and preserving the history of women lawyers in a particular state.

The awards will be presented in New York at the Women's Bar Leadership  Summit on Friday, August 11.