Everyday Bias, Everyday Solutions: Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Your World
Program description:
Bias affects our daily interactions, often so seamlessly that we may not even recognize when it manifests. This session will give you the tools to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in the world immediately around you: your professional dealings with clients and colleagues, your conversations, your workplace systems and policies. In an interactive presentation, you will consider the implications of systemic and personal bias, study some of its routine manifestations, and learn how to disrupt bias towards more equitable and inclusive outcomes.
Speaker
Cecil J. Thomas is an attorney at Greater Hartford Legal Aid, Inc., where he represents low-income clients, predominantly in housing matters. He has led appellate and class action litigation resulting in significant victories on behalf of low-income Connecticut residents.
Cecil is the Vice President of the Connecticut Bar Association, having previously served four years as co-chair of the CBA’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee. As co-chair of the CBA D&I Committee, Cecil led the development and launch of the Connecticut Legal Community’s Diversity and Inclusion Pledge. The Pledge, which now has 35 law firm and corporate signatories, requires a commitment to a multiyear strategic plan for advancing organizational diversity and inclusion.
Cecil is a frequent presenter and trainer on diversity, equity, and inclusion, having presented to the CBA, law firms, leadership groups, community foundations, and for the State of Connecticut Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparity in the Criminal Justice System. Cecil is a current board member and past president of the South Asian Bar Association of Connecticut, a member of the Connecticut Law Tribune Editorial Board, and a James W. Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation.
Cecil received the Connecticut Supreme Court Law Day Award in 2008, the Hartford County Bar Association’s Judge Maxwell Heiman Memorial Award in 2013, and the New Leader in the Law Award from the Connecticut Law Tribune in 2014.
Cecil received his Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. He graduated cum laude from Brandeis University with a Master of Arts in American History, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and History, with honors.
CLE Credits
CT: 1.0 CLE Credits | NY: 0.0 CLE Credits
Cost:
$37
$15 (To make meeting attendance affordable to all, we offer a “lend-a-hand” rate of $15. If the full rate would be an obstacle to your attending, please remit the “lend-a-hand” rate. No questions asked.)