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The state bar will have two years to develop rules requiring attorneys and court employees to complete courses helping them identify any unconscious prejudices under legislation signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday.

Assembly Bill 242 also authorizes the Judicial Council to create similar training programs for judges and subordinate judicial officers. Such training is already mandatory for Judicial Council employees, and Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye has endorsed such coursework for judges, telling lawmakers in her State of the Judiciary speech in March that she plans to take the first class when it becomes available.

The new law stems from a package of bills pushed by Democrats this year aimed at reducing implicit bias among professionals and institutions. Related legislation signed by Newsom will also require continuing education classes on bias for doctors and nurses.

"There will be no training that will completely eradicate everything, particularly implicit or unconscious bias," the author of AB 242, Assemblymember Sydney Kamlager-Dove, D-Los Angeles, said at a hearing on her legislation in June. "I am not going to suggest this bill is a silver bullet for that. But it certainly will work to address the bias in ways that will help folks counteract it and embrace it and acknowledge it so that they can be better at their jobs."

The legislation was backed by a dozen legal groups, including Disability Rights California, the Legal Aid Association of California and the National Center for Lesbian Rights. There was no registered opposition.

The new law gives the state bar until Jan. 1, 2022, to come up with rules requiring continuing mandatory legal education for all licensees on "implicit bias and the promotion of bias-reducing strategies to address how unintended biases regarding race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics undermine confidence in the legal system." The law does not mandate the amount of training attorneys will be required to undergo.

Court workers who interact with the public on matters before the court will be required to complete two hours of implicit bias training every two years.

The state bar reported to the Legislature in March that it had provided an education class on implicit bias to its employees and planned to deliver it to volunteers serving on the agency's many committees.

 

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