- This event has passed.
Webinar: Credibility, Implicit Bias, and Discretion in Decision-Making
April 11 @ 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
This webinar will focus on how the adjudicator’s implicit bias affects their decisions about credibility and their exercise of discretion. While adjudicators may recognize their own bias, this may not necessarily lead to stopping bias. Judges know that they need to assess credibility, and appellate judges are not supposed to replace their determination. The demeanor of the defendant, witnesses, prosecutor, and defense attorney can make a difference in the outcome of cases.
A professor, a former administrative law judge, and a District Court judge will discuss how adjudicators can recognize and attempt to eliminate implicit bias in decision-making.
Professor Susan Bandes, who teaches at DePaul Law School and the University of Miami Law School, is a founder of the field of Law and Emotion. She will address the ways in which cultural scripts and worldviews influence credibility determinations, including remorse evaluations. She will further discuss the dangers of selective empathy based on race, ethnicity, social class, and other factors. She will suggest some approaches for addressing these issues.
Former Board of Immigration Appeals judge Lory Rosenberg will speak about how adjudicators address issues of credibility and discretion in adjudications, bearing in mind that their own life experiences color their decisions.
District Court Judge Judith Levy uses an implicit bias instruction during jury selection. She will discuss her experience with that instruction and raise concerns about the wide number of credibility determinations trial judges need to make with very little information or exposure to the individual. These include bond determinations, sentencing decisions, early termination of supervised release or probation, and more. She will also discuss her experience of listening to criminal defendants’ allocution during sentencing, and the importance of addressing implicit or explicit bias in this process.
Presented by the Professional Development Committee, the Judiciary Division, and the Civil Rights Law Section
[Register Online]
For questions regarding this program, please contact MyLaw CLE by email: registration@mylawcle.com or phone: 877-406-8636.
About the Presenters
Prof. Susan Bandes, DePaul Law School and the University of Miami Law School
Susan A. Bandes is a scholar in the areas of criminal procedure, federal courts, and civil rights, and a pioneer in the interdisciplinary study of the role of emotion in law. She is a 1976 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. Her legal career began at the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender. In 1980, she became staff counsel for the Illinois A.C.L.U., where she litigated a broad spectrum of civil rights cases and helped draft and secure passage of the Illinois Freedom of Information Act. She joined the DePaul faculty in 1984, was named the Centennial Professor of Law in 2012, and the Centennial Professor of Law Emeritus in 2017. She has written more than 70 articles, which appear in the Yale, Stanford, University of Chicago, Michigan and Southern California law reviews, as well as interdisciplinary journals like Law and Social Inquiry, the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, and the Law and Society Review. Her book The Passions of Law was published by NYU Press in 2000. She is a member of the American Law Institute, a fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and the founder of the Law and Society Association’s Collaborative Research Network on Law and Emotion.
Hon. Judith Levy, United States District Judge, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Judith E. Levy is a United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was nominated for the position by President Barack Obama and the U.S. Senate confirmed her nomination on March 12, 2014. She previously served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan since 2000, and she was the Civil Rights Unit Chief for the last three years. Prior to that role, she was a trial attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Detroit. From 1996-1999, she served as a law clerk for Judge Bernard A. Friedman, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Michigan. Judge Levy taught seminars at the University of Michigan Law School from 2002 through 2019.
Lory D. Rosenberg, Founder, IDEAS Consultation and Coaching
Lory D. Rosenberg, founder of IDEAS Consultation and Coaching, is a sought-after immigration lawyer, legal mentor and certified life coach. Lory provides cutting-edge legal analysis and strategies to resolve complex cases and appeals, and works with attorneys to manage business, personal and financial blocks, stress, and mindset challenges, so they can achieve their vision of making a difference. A national speaker and trainer, Ms. Rosenberg previously served as an appellate judge on the Board of Immigration Appeals, and is co-author of Immigration Law and Crimes. She was an adjunct professor at American University, Washington College of Law, Director of the NLADA Defending Immigrants Partnership, Director of the AIC Legal Action Center, and founder of the Centro Presente Central American asylum seekers’ legal programs. She previously participated in the Association of Refugee Law Judges, and presently is active in the former IJ and BIA Judges Roundtable. Lory formerly served as a member of the Board of the Federal Bar Association Immigration Law Section, was on the Board of The National Immigration Project. She was elected 3 times to the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Board of Governors, and is the recipient of its Arthur Helton Human Rights Award, and the Edith Lowenstein Award for advancing the practice of immigration law.
About the Moderator
Beth Persky, Immigration & Nationality Lawyer, Law Offices of Beth S. Persky
Beth Persky has practiced immigration law since 1992. She is a past chair of the FBA’s International Law Section and chairs the ECOSOC Committee. Beth recently attended the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting in New York on behalf of the FBA. Beth is a Certified Specialist in Immigration and Nationality Law with the California Board of Legal Specialization. She is admitted to practice before the Ninth Circuit and the Central District of California. Beth moved to Atlanta during the pandemic. Her practice focuses on sports immigration, and she also writes briefs for asylum cases at the trial and appellate level.
Registration
- Live Broadcast | FBA Member: $0
- Live Broadcast | Nonmember: $95
- On-Demand Broadcast | FBA Member: $50
- On-Demand Broadcast | Nonmember: $95
For questions regarding this program, please contact MyLaw CLE by email: registration@mylawcle.com or phone: 877-406-8636.
(!) Please note: CLE for this webinar has not been pre-approved.
MyLaw and the FBA will seek 1.0 General CLE credit hours in 60-minute states, and 1.2 General CLE credit hours in 50-minute states.
Posted credit hours are estimated and subject to respective state approval and rounding rules. CLE qualifications vary by state/jurisdiction.
