As the Deputy General Counsel of Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP, Alison Bost advises hundreds of attorneys across the country regarding legal ethics, professional responsibility and risk management.  During her TendingBar interview, Alison describes a legal career built on counseling other lawyers, and we delve into the challenges of managing potential conflicts of interest in a large firm that advises thousands of clients.

In the wake of repeated tragedies involving unjustified killings of black Americans by police, the American public has spent most of 2020 engaged in renewed discussions about systemic racism.  Unfortunately, the public debate often lacks a shared vocabulary or a conceptual framework necessary to make those discussions fruitful.  Forward-thinking businesses and professional organizations, by contrast, have in recent years begun to recognize the importance of diversity within their ranks, as well as the persistence of systemic challenges facing diversity initiatives. Within Womble, Alison has therefore organized nationwide efforts to educate attorneys about the science of implicit bias — certainly timely in today’s climate.  Most of our TendingBar interview discusses implicit bias, and we introduce viewers/listeners to Project Implicit (http://implicit.harvard.edu), the freely available online toolset created by a collaboration among  professors at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington.  TendingBar recommends Project Implicit as a framework to teach and learn about implicit biases in a non-threatening and eye-opening way.

With Alison’s leadership, Womble now participates in the Mansfield Rule, a nationwide program among law firms designed to interrupt and overcome the negative impacts of implicit bias in the law firm workplace.  Mansfield-participating firms make commitments to include diverse candidates in all of their key hiring and promotion decisions (and other aspects of firm operations).  Alison describes Womble’s participation, and we discuss the reality that diverse organizations demonstrate higher productivity (and higher profits).

Key Discussion Moments (minutes:seconds)

2:30  From French Major to Lawyer

6:50  Taking Conflicts of Interest Seriously

14:00 Understanding Implicit Bias and the Legal Workplace

21:27 Project Implicit as a framework for teaching about implicit bias

27:35 The Mansfield Rule

34:30 Alison’s life advice for would-be lawyers?