Overcoming Age Bias In the Legal Profession, With a Discussion of ABA Model Rule 8.4(g)

Join the presenters Andrea S. Kramer, partner in McDermott Will & Emery, and Alton B. Harris, partner in Nixon Peabody LLP, for this important program about eliminating age bias in the legal profession. Understanding age stereotypes and the biases surrounding both younger and older lawyers, allows legal organizations to effectively combat age discrimination, while improving generational harmony. Ms. Kramer and Mr. Harris will provide techniques that participants can use to avoid or overcome the biases they face or observe as young people enter the profession while others grow older. They will also discuss the unique biases women lawyers face as they grow older. Additionally, the program will review the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, age discrimination workplace complaints, the status of litigation, and ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) and the effect that this recently expanded rule has on the definition of professional misconduct [discrimination].

The presenters are practicing attorneys with extensive experience in law firm management, hiring and promotion, compensation, stereotypes and unconscious bias. They have served in senior management positions at their law firms and have in-depth experience with all aspects of personnel management, including recruiting, hiring and firing, individual and team supervision, compensation, and promotion. They have co-authored more than 30 professional and gender-related articles and book chapters and they have collaborated in mentoring women in a variety of positions and fields and speaking to business and professional groups about overcoming gender bias, and webcasts and blogs on the elimination of bias in the legal profession. This course is based on their personal experiences and the research used in their book, Breaking Through Bias: Communication Techniques for Women to Succeed at Work, Bibliomotion, Brookline, MA, 2016.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Understand the age stereotypes and biases that are prevalent in the legal profession.
2. See how gender stereotypes and biases interact with age stereotypes to discriminate against women over 45 years old.
3. Sensitize male attorneys and the organizations they run to the negative effects of age stereotypes and biases.
4. Provide all lawyers with effective techniques to avoid or eliminate age bias in their organizations.