Every two years, Illinois attorneys need to complete their 30 MCLE credits by June 30. One particularly challenging credit requirement to fulfill is the one hour of Diversity and Inclusion (D/I), which will be due starting in 2019.

The Purpose:

Implicit biases exist in all of us, whether we want to admit it or not. The legal industry has a known problem with diversity, which is ironic considering attorneys are supposed to serve a diverse community while remaining completely objective.

Illinois offers some guidelines for what qualifies as a D/I program. Specifically, the course needs to focus on underrepresented groups within the legal industry, and the challenges they face. This includes lack of representation, workplace harassment, barriers to hiring, low retention, lack of professional development and promotion, and other such issues. Courses must be directly focused on the legal profession and aimed at attorneys (like any other CLE course), so courses that aren’t geared towards attorneys won’t qualify.

Examples of the types of bias the course can address include discrimination on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, disability, and many others. The key is that the focus be on the legal industry itself, and not on substantive law topics related to diversity and inclusion (ex: immigration law courses would not count).

There are so many types of bias and so many forms of discrimination that attorneys need to be mindful of and actively fight against in their daily practice, so a regular review that includes techniques to combat them is an important component of the CLE requirement.

How to Complete It:

Just as there are many forms of bias, there are tons of course topics that can fulfill the requirements for Diversity and Inclusion in Illinois. If you’re looking for a few to get you started, here are some of our favorites:

• Strategies to Improve Diversity and Interrupt Implicit Bias in the Legal Profession
• When Bad Biases Happen to Good People: A Primer on Recognizing and Interrupting Implicit Biases
• Ending the Discriminatory Consequences of Age Bias in the Legal Profession

There’s plenty more where that came from, so check out all of Lawline’s Professional Responsibility courses for additional options. For a more detailed look at how to fulfill this requirement, check out the full article here!