Letter from bar associations urging New York State to create a diversity and inclusion CLE requirement for attorneys

SUMMARY

The Amistad Long Island Black Bar Association, Association of Black Women Attorneys, Association of Law Firm Diversity Professionals, Dominican Bar Association, Hispanic National Bar Association, Jewish Lawyers Guild, LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York, Long Island Hispanic Bar Association, Metropolitan Black Bar Association, Muslim Bar Association of New York, New York City Bar Association, Puerto Rican Bar Association and South Asian Bar Association of New York sent a letter to Chief Judge DiFiore and the NY CLE Board urging them to heed the call of recently and unanimously passed ABA Resolution 107. The resolution would require, as a separate credit or credits among the biennial minimum required of lawyers, programs regarding diversity and inclusion in the legal profession and programs regarding the elimination of bias.

OUTCOME

New York State CLE Board created a new category of CLE credit effective January 1, 2018:  Diversity, Inclusion and Elimination of Bias (“D&I”)