NJSBA Family Law Section

Good afternoon Family Law Section members,

On Tuesday, Nov. 23, NJICLE will present Webcast - Sean Carter on Ethics: The 2021 ETHY AWARDS and I THINK, THEREFORE I AM …BIASED - How Implicit Biases Manifest in the Legal Profession from 12 to 4:45 p.m.

Sean Carter is back - with a 2-part program, designed to fully satisfy your New York and New Jersey MCLE ethics obligations including your diversity requirement. Earn ethics and diversity credits the fun way – attend Sean Carter's laugh packed program! Our program features vignettes that will teach you how to do the right thing all time.

Sean A. Carter graduated from Harvard Law School in 1992. He was a corporate securities lawyer in private practice in large law firms in Boston and Los Angeles serving clients such as GNC, the Boston Beer Company, Experian, Safelite Auto Glass, J. Crew, and many others. In 2000, he accepted a position as in-house counsel for a publicly traded financial institution, at which he remained until October 2002.

Since that time, Mr. Carter has been a full-time lecturer, columnist, and legal commentator. His written have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the ABA e-Report and on numerous blogs and websites, including Findlaw.com. He has been a guest on numerous radio programs across the country as well as online legal media outlets, such as The Legal Broadcast Network.

In addition, Mr. Carter delivers more than 100 MCLE presentations each year on topics such as legal ethics, professionalism, the elimination of bias, substance abuse prevention, constitutional law, etc. He has spoken for state and local bar associations, law firms, law schools and corporate in-house legal departments in more than 30 states.

Part One - The Ethys Awards
12:00 Introduction
In this Oscar-themed presentation, Sean Carter will present "awards" for the best (or rather, worst) ethics violations of 2020. In doing so, he will recap the facts of each disciplinary action, the ethics rules violated, and the sanction imposed against the attorney. More importantly, he will explain how to avoid similar violations in the conduct of our legal practices.
12:05 The Outlawyer Award
Rule Violated- Rule 8.4; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
12:20 Most Creative Billing
Rule Violated; Rule 1.5; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
12:35 The Houdini Award
Rules Violated-Rule 1.15 & Rule 8.4;Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
12:50 The AT&T Award Rules
Violated- Rule 1.4; Rule 1.13 and Rule 8.1; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
1:10 Break
1:15 The Joan Rivers Award
Rule Violated- Rule 1.6; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
1:30 Least Competent in a Legal Representation
Rules Violated -Rule 1.1 and Rule 1.3; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
1:45 Worst Love Scene Rules Violated
Rule 1.7 and Rule 1.8; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
2:00 The Hitchcock Award Rules Violated
Rule 1.15 and Rule 8.4; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
2:10 Worst Legal Strategy
Rules Violated- Rule 3.5 and Rule 8.4; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
2:25 Break
2:30 Miss (Mister) Uncongeniality
Rules Violated- Rule 3.5 and Rule 8.4; Case Summaries Practical Lessons
2:45 Worst Temper in a Non-Legal Setting
Rule Violated- Rule 8.4; Case Summaries and Practical Lessons
3:00 Most Impaired in a Legal Setting
Rules Violated - Rule1.16(a)(2); Rule 1.1 & Rule 1.3; Case Summaries Practical Lessons
3:15 Most Impaired in a Non-Legal Setting
Rules Violated-Rule1.16(a)(2) & Rule 8.4(b) Case Summaries Practical Lessons
3:30 Conclusion and Q&A
3:35 Adjourn / Break
In the process of recapping some of the most egregious instances of unethical behavior, Mr. Carter will demonstrate how the rest of us can avoid more common ethical violations.

Part Two - I THINK, THEREFORE I AM …BIASED – How Implicit Biases Manifest in the Legal Profession
3:45 Introduction
Biases are an inevitable end- product of the sorting machine that is the human brain. The three sorting rules by which we process information encourages certain types of biases; and they don't require malice or ill-intent.
3:50 Sorting Rule #1 – We must have an answer
One of the basic human needs is for certainty. This largely explains the prevalence of religion in most societies. Religion provides answers to otherwise unknowable questions, such as "Where did we come from?" and "Where are we going?" And this need for certainty is so strong that, in the absence of confirmable truth, our natural tendency is to fill-in-the-blanks with our best guess.

In many cases, our best guesses are the result of a combination of "facts" that are, in and of themselves, best guesses, meaning that we have tendency to be both certain and wrong. The foregoing is illustrated for attendees by showing a now-infamous video of then Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager Al Campanis trying to answer a question for which he did not have the answer – "Why there were so few black managers in major league baseball at the time?" His efforts to give a certain answer to a hard-to-answer question resulted in him creating biases on the fly that would shortly thereafter spell the end to an otherwise noteworthy career.

4:00 Sorting Rule #2 - Seeing is believing
Not surprisingly, we get most of the information we use to make decisions based on our sight. But what is surprising is that sight isn't just our first point of reference, but it is the ultimate determiner of truth. In other words, even if our other senses give us contradictory information, we will base our conclusion on what we see. This truth is demonstrated through a visual and auditory test administered by the presenter.

Sight dominance wouldn't be such a problem if human beings were creatures with exceptional eyesight. However, as it turns out, we see rather poorly given the way that our brains process images. In short, our brain has been trained to make educated guesses as to what we see based on assumptions of what we should see. Moreover, it deletes any "extraneous" information so that we can focus on what is most important, but that process requires assumptions based on our expectations (i.e., biases). As a result, what we "see" is as much a product of our biases as it is a product of reality. The foregoing is demonstrated to attendees by showing how their eyesight is affected by their expectations and administering an attention test, after which will show most attendees just how much visual information their brains delete to allow them to focus on what should be important to them.

4:10 Sorting Rule #3 - Err on the side of caution
When all else fails and we are unable to come to a definitive (even if likely wrong) conclusion, the brain's default is to choose the "safest" option for us. This is a very wise strategy in situations where the cost of being wrong is severe (such as, say, death), but it doesn't serve us quite as well when the stakes are lower and especially given that our "view" of safety is often influenced by societal (and even innate) conditioning to feel safer with those who look most like us. As a result, our natural tendency is to seek out and forge bonds with others who we perceive to be on our "tribe." Cognitive biases towards those in the "in-group" are well-documented, and the attendees will be introduced to some of the research and shown how this in-group preference operates within legal organizations.

4:20 Sorting all above
The sorting rules set forth above will often lead people (and even lawyers) to make a bad decisions based on hastily reached conclusions. These conclusions will often be based on biases that we have learned from others or have reached through previously hastily reached conclusions. Fortunately, while these sorting rules are not replaceable, they are negotiable. In other words, they can be tweaked to help us make better decisions by recognizing our biases and then compensating for them.

4:25 Revised Sorting Rule #1 - We must have an answer, but the answer is complicated
The importance of this tweak is to get lawyers to understand that, in the past, being smart has often entailed making quick decisions based on limited information. But being "smart" isn't enough to help us remove barriers and boundaries that have disadvantaged others for centuries. To do that, we must be wise. And wisdom is understanding that our first answer is not always the right answer and that we increase our chances of coming to this right answer is to slow down our thinking process and insist upon more information. And part of that additional information is relying on experts who, through years of training, can often see much clearer than we can.

4:30 Revised Sorting Rule #2 - Seeing is believing but watch out for your blind spots
Just as blind spots in our vision as motorists make it more difficult to navigate our way down the highway in our cars, the blind spots in our vision as lawyers make it more difficult to navigate the diversity and inclusion issues that plague our profession. And just like the answer for a motorist is not to ignore those blind spots and pretend that they have reached some "post-blind spot" nirvana, our answer is to come to grips with our blind spots by taking a "second look" and even seeking navigational assistance from those who are better situated to see hazards and dangers that elude our current vision.

4:35 Revised Sorting Rule #3 - Err on the side of caution opposite your biases
Obviously, it's not enough to just know that you have blind spots. To make strides towards overcoming them, it requires that you act upon this knowledge. And one of the easiest ways to do so is to make a conscious effort to overcompensate for your known biases.
4:40 Conclusion and Q&A
4:45 Adjourn

CLE Credits:
NJ CLE information: This program has been approved by the Board on Continuing Legal Education of the Supreme Court of New Jersey for 5.2 hours of total CLE credit. Of these, 1.2 qualify as hours of credit for diversity and inclusion and 4.0 qualify as hours of credit for ethics/professionalism.
NJ CLE: This program has been approved for 5.2 credits (50 minute hour), including 1.2 diversity and inclusion credit and 4.0 ethics/professionalism.
PA CLE: 4.0 ethics credits pending ($16 fee – separate check payable to NJICLE must be submitted at the end of the program)
NY CLE (t&nt): 4.0 ethics and 1.0 diversity and inclusion credits

The tuition for NJSBA members is $175. The general tuition is $225.

Click here to register for Webcast - Sean Carter on Ethics: The 2021 ETHY AWARDS and I THINK, THEREFORE I AM …BIASED - How Implicit Biases Manifest in the Legal Profession.

For questions or to register by phone, please contact an association representative at 732-214-8500, or by email at [email protected].

All the best,
Barb

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Barbara Straczynski
Director of New Media and Promotions
New Jersey State Bar Association
New Brunswick NJ
(732) 937-7524
[email protected]
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