Teaching the Tough Stuff: The Opportunities and Challenges in Teaching Implicit Bias, Diversity and Inclusion to Supervising Attorneys

We entrust supervising attorneys with the critical responsibility of providing law students with a meaningful experiential learning experience. Supervising attorneys ultimately control the nature of work students receive, the delivery of feedback, and the work environment that the student inhabits. Thus, it is vital that we equip our supervising attorneys with the basic skills necessary to navigate student supervision effectively. Among those basic skills is the ability to traverse the cross-cultural complexities inherent in working with students whose cultural identities may differ from the supervising attorney. Equally important are the cross-cultural issues that may arise among students and the clients and other persons with whom they interact during their externship. This session will discuss the significance in providing supervising training that focuses on diversity and implicit bias as it relates to students, supervision and the externship context. As externship faculty and staff, we have an integral role in ensuring that our supervising attorneys create a working environment for our students that is devoid of discrimination and bias. The standard “supervising attorney training” provides the ideal forum to introduce cultural diversity and implicit bias concepts to supervising attorneys. In such a setting, externship faculty and staff can train supervising attorneys in cross-cultural pedagogy, and expose practitioners to best practices regarding cultural complexities that may arise in student supervision. However, the forum is not without its challenges. Supervising attorney training sessions only allow a limited time to present such an essential, multifaceted issue. Additionally, supervisor training typically consists of a diverse group of attendees, with varying degrees of understanding of diversity and inclusion issues, and who may be uncomfortable delving into seemingly controversial cultural conversations with strangers. The co-presenters will share their experiences in planning and delivering such training, exploring the effectiveness of various methodologies