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.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize | Matthew Liebman | University of San Francisco School of Law |
| 2026 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize Honorable Mention | Milan Markovic | Texas A&M University School of Law |
| 2026 | Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize Honorable Mention | Nuno Garoupa | Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University |
| 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 |