diff --git a/src/jobflow/core/reference.py b/src/jobflow/core/reference.py
index 0bbf2205..ab17b3df 100644
--- a/src/jobflow/core/reference.py
+++ b/src/jobflow/core/reference.py
@@ -8,9 +8,9 @@
 
 from monty.json import MontyDecoder, MontyEncoder, MSONable, jsanitize
 from pydantic import BaseModel
-from pydantic.v1.utils import lenient_issubclass
 
 from jobflow.utils.enum import ValueEnum
+from jobflow.utils.types import lenient_issubclass
 
 if typing.TYPE_CHECKING:
     from collections.abc import Sequence
diff --git a/src/jobflow/utils/types.py b/src/jobflow/utils/types.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..86cd92cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/jobflow/utils/types.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+"""Utilities for types."""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from typing import Any
+
+
+def lenient_issubclass(cls: Any, class_or_tuple: Any) -> bool:
+    """
+    Check if a class is a subclass of another class.
+
+    Partially inspired by pydantic.v1.utils.lenient_issubclass.
+    TypeError is not raised if the standard issublass fails.
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    cls
+        The class to check.
+    class_or_tuple
+        The potential parent class of the class to check.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    bool
+        True if the class is a subclass of the target class.
+    """
+    try:
+        return isinstance(cls, type) and issubclass(cls, class_or_tuple)
+    except TypeError:
+        return False
diff --git a/tests/utils/test_types.py b/tests/utils/test_types.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..37451dc1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/utils/test_types.py
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+def test_lenient_issubclass():
+    from collections.abc import Mapping
+
+    from pydantic import BaseModel
+
+    from jobflow.core.schemas import JobStoreDocument
+    from jobflow.utils.types import lenient_issubclass
+
+    assert lenient_issubclass(int, int)
+    assert not lenient_issubclass(str, int)
+    assert lenient_issubclass(JobStoreDocument, BaseModel)
+
+    # these cases will raise errors using issubclass
+    assert not lenient_issubclass("test", str)
+    assert not lenient_issubclass(list[str], Mapping)
+    assert not lenient_issubclass("test", BaseModel)
+    assert not lenient_issubclass(str, "not_a_class")