  We consider the problem of conducting an experiment to study the prevalence
of racial bias against individuals seeking legal assistance, in particular
whether lawyers use clues about a potential client's race in deciding whether
to reply to e-mail requests for representations. The problem of discriminating
between potential linear and non-linear effects of a racial signal is
formulated as a statistical inference problem, whose objective is to infer a
parameter determining the shape of a specific function. Various complexities
associated with the design and analysis of this experiment are handled by
applying a novel combination of rigorous, semi-rigorous and rudimentary
statistical techniques. The actual experiment was attempted with a population
of lawyers in Florida, but could not be performed with the desired sample size
due to resource limitations. Nonetheless, it provides a nice demonstration of
the proposed steps involved in conducting such a study.
