Thursday, October 8, 2026
12:00 PM to 1:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time)
Zoom Meeting - CLE Pass Eligible
Presented by the CT Bar Institute
About the Program
This session examines how bias operates today, not through overt exclusion, but inside the ordinary language of legal risk management, and inside the ordinary language of enforcement itself. Drawing on the presenter's consulting work advising corporate general counsel through the current wave of DEI-related enforcement, this session traces six years of employer decision-making, adoption, retrenchment, and litigation, from 2020 through mid-2026, and gives attorneys a working test for telling real legal risk apart from bias dressed as compliance, in either direction. The session uses live, contested litigation as its central case study, including a motion currently pending in federal court that itself rests on a compliance defense, to show how enforcement actions can turn on close legal analysis rather than assumption alone.
You Will Learn
• How to distinguish legitimate Title VII risk management from decisions, in either direction, that use risk language to justify a bias-driven outcome
• How to apply the EEOC’s February 2026 guidance and the Ames precedent to evaluate a client’s DEI-related policy or rollback decision
• How to identify a compliance-framed decision in participants’ own institution that may warrant a second look under this framework
Who Should Attend
Attorneys interested in bias, power and the law.
Cost
(Includes electronic materials)
Solo/Small and YLS Section Member $30
Member $40
CLE Pass Holder $0
Student Member $0
Non-Member $80
Please log into your account to receive CBA member pricing.
Financial hardship information is available upon request.
CLE Credit
CT: 1.0 CLE Credits (Ethics)
NY: 1.0 CLE Credits (D&I)
The Connecticut Bar Association/CT Bar Institute is an accredited provider of New York State CLE. This program qualifies for experienced attorney CLE credits.
Attorneys seeking NY CLE credit who have been admitted to the New York State Bar for two years or less must attend the live seminar for skills or ethics credit, a fully interactive videoconference, or simultaneous transmission with synchronous interactivity. Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias CLE credits are only available as non-transitional credits.
For further information please see the NYCourts.gov page on CLE: http://ww2.nycourts.gov/attorneys/cle/index.shtml.
The CBA CLE financial aid policy is available here. Please contact tgenung@ctbar.org to request financial aid to attend this CLE program.
If the seminar is recorded, all member registrants will receive complimentary access to the recording approximately six weeks after the program.
Please note that refunds will not be granted once course materials have been sent.
Cancellations made less than 2 business days prior to event are non-refundable.
Closed captioning will be available during the seminar presentation for virtual attendees.