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.
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)
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.
Deborah L. Rhode Award
The Deborah L. Rhode Award honors the contributions, service, and leadership of Deborah Rhode by recognizing a new trailblazer in legal education and the legal profession. The award is given annually by four Sections of the Association of American Law Schools in which Deborah Rhode made an indelible impact—Section on Leadership, Section on Pro Bono & Service Opportunities, Section on Professional Responsibility, and Section on Women in Legal Education. The award is given to a legal academic or lawyer who exemplifies the groundbreaking work, imagination and inspired action of Deborah Rhode during her career. The recipient is someone who has great potential to make a mark during their career as evidenced by work that brings a novel perspective or call for action in legal education or the legal profession.
Nominations and Eligibility:
Recipients
| Year | Award Name | Recipient | Law School |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Law
St. John’s University School of Law |
| 2016 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Elizabeth Camblee Burch
Morris A. Ratner |
University of Georgia School of Law
University of California, Hastings College of Law |
| 2015 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Russell M. Gold | New York University School of Law |