Date Chartered: 1/1/1973
Purpose
The Section on Professional Responsibility promotes the communication of ideas, interests, and activities among members, provides support for pedagogical and scholarly endeavors, and facilitates dialogue on matters of interest in the teaching and improvement of the law relating to the legal profession and issues of professional responsibility.
Annual Meeting Programs
2025
2024
- Main Program
- Works-in-Progress
- Award Ceremony
- Litigation, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility, Pro-Bono & Access to Justice, and Technology, Law and Legal Education
- Leadership, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility
- Alternative Dispute Resolution, Co-Sponsored by Legislative & Law of the Political Process and Professional Responsibility
- Legal Writing, Reasoning, and Research, Co-sponsored by Professional Responsibility, and Student Services
- Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession, Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility
2023
- Main Program
- Works-in-Progress
- Award Ceremony
- Legal History (Co-Sponsored by Jewish Law, Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies, Professional Responsibility, and Women in Legal Education)
- Clinical Legal Education (Co-Sponsored by Law Professors with Disabilities and Allies, Professional Responsibility, and Women in Legal Education)
2022
- Main Program
- Legal Writing, Reasoning and Research (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- Leadership (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- Litigation (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- AALS Open Source Program (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- Works in Progress
- Networking Session
2021
- Main Program
- Pedagogy
- Works in Progress
- Litigation (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
- Leadership (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
2020
- Main Program
- Luncheon
- Works In Progress – New Voices
- Empirical Study of Legal Education and the Legal Profession (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
2019
- Main Program
- Breakfast
- Works In Progress – New Voices
- Leadership (Co-Sponsored by Professional Responsibility)
Awards
Fred Zacharias Memorial Prize
The Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Scholarship in Professional Responsibility is awarded yearly to an outstanding work in legal ethics by the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility. Zacharias, a law professor at University of San Diego Law School, died in 2009 at the age of 56, after a career as a nationally known expert in professional responsibility, writing on the ethical duties that lawyers have to the legal system and society as well as clients. This prize was established to honor and carry on his work.
Recipients
| Year | Award Name | Recipient | Law School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Scott L. Cummings | University of California, Los Angeles School of Law |
| 2024 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Jon Lee | University of Maine School of Law |
| 2023 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Matthew Kim | Judicial Law Clerk on the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Miami, Florida |
| 2022 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | W. Bradley Wendel | Cornell Law School |
| 2022 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Angela Onwuachi-Willig | Boston University School of Law |
| 2022 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Anthony V. Alfieri | University of Miami School of Law |
| 2021 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Irene Joe | University of California Davis School of Law |
| 2021 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Noah Rosenblum | New York University School of Law |
| 2020 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Michael Moffit | University of Oregon School of Law |
| 2020 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Jessica A. Roth | Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University |
| 2019 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Eric Fish | Federal Defenders of San Diego Inc. |
| 2018 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Robert Gordon | University of California, Davis School of Law |
| 2017 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Leslie C. Levin Kate Levine | University of Connecticut School of LawSt. John’s University School of Law |
| 2016 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Elizabeth Camblee BurchMorris A. Ratner | University of Georgia School of LawUniversity of California, Hastings College of Law |
| 2015 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Russell M. Gold | New York University School of Law |
Honorable Mentions
| Year | Award Name | Recipient | Law School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize Honorable Mention | Nora F. Engstrom | Stanford Law School |
| 2025 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize Honorable Mention | James Stone | Law Clerk, Eighth Circuit United States Court of Appeals |