Professor Anthony V. Alfieri, director of the Center for Ethics & Public Service, was awarded the 12th Annual Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize for Scholarship in Professional Responsibility.
“It is a great honor to win the Fred C. Zacharias Memorial Prize this year, especially having known Fred as a scholar and a respected leader in the professional responsibility academic community,” said Alfieri. “It is also gratifying to see professional responsibility scholarship recognized in the field of civil rights, a critically important part of the educational mission of the Center for Ethics and Public Service.”
The honor is awarded yearly to outstanding work in legal ethics by the AALS Section on Professional Responsibility, one of 104 sections. Zacharias, a law professor at the 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. The prize was established to honor and carry on his work.
Dean of Students Janet Stearns was the recipient of the Section on Student Services Peter N. Kutulakis Student Services Award and a speaker at the institutional advancement opening plenary, "Supporting our Pandemic Era Graduates," where she highlighted many of the initiatives that Miami Law has taken since March 2020 to support law students, including alumni-supported emergency funds, food pantry, and engagement of students through hybrid classes and extra-curricular activities.
The annual award recognized her outstanding record of providing service to students and advocating for reform in the profession.
In receiving the award, Stearns spoke about the ongoing challenges of mental health for law students, and hopeful opportunities for reform within the ABA and the state bar character and fitness process. She urged continued focus and training on suicide prevention. “Law student well-being is an essential aspect of student services,” she said.
“Both Tony and Janet contribute in ways that exemplify the values of Miami Law,” said Interim Dean Nell Jessup Newton. “As a scholar and in his service work, Tony has made major contributions to the essential field of professional responsibility throughout his career. Janet’s dedication to the well-being and health of our students may shine on a smaller stage, but is magnified by her impact on the thousands of Miami Law students through the years.”
Four other speakers from the law school joined the more than 900 moderators and discussion leaders in the 250 sessions over the five-day virtual meeting.
Associate Professor Kathleen Claussen was a speaker at the discussion group program, "The Law of the Foreign Relations Bureaucracy."
Professor Charlton Copeland, a Dean's Distinguished Scholar and Associate Dean for Intellectual Life, presented at the workshop for pre-tenure teachers of color session "On Being an 'Other' in the Classroom, Law School, and University" and at the committee on recruitment and retention of minority law teachers and students program "The Rise and Future of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Law School Context."
Professor Elizabeth Iglesias presented at "Works-in-Progress: New Voices in Civil Rights."
Professor Francisco Valdes, a Dean's Distinguished Scholar, spoke at the minority groups co-sponsored by clinical legal education "Critical Justice: The Pedagogy of Multidimensional Analysis and Systemic Advocacy."
The meeting is the largest gathering of law faculty in the world. More than 3,000 deans, law teachers, librarians, and law school administrators from member schools, non-member schools, and law schools of other nations attend the gathering.
Most of the meeting is devoted to programs organized and presented by AALS sections. AALS issues a call for scholarly papers by full-time faculty who have taught for five years or less to encourage and recognize excellent legal scholarship by new law teachers. Legal scholars select those authors whose papers have made the most substantial contribution to legal literature for special recognition.
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