The Miller Becker Award for Exceptional Student Professionalism honors annually one full-time and one part-time Akron Law student who:

• Embodies some aspect of the character of Mr. Miller and Professor Becker: exceptional professionalism, leadership, service, or friendship;
• Has a reputation within the Akron Law community for being a person of principle, compassion, strength, and courage; and
• Has upheld the Student Oath of Professionalism by honoring the standards of academic honesty, strengthening the law school community, conducting themselves with dignity and civility, and treating students, staff and faculty with kindness and respect. Click HERE for more information about the award.

NOMINATIONS

The nomination period is open each year between February and March. Akron Law students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to nominate students from a wide variety of backgrounds. Anonymous and self-nominations are not considered. CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT A NOMINATION. Nominations must be received by Friday, March 20, 2026.

Miller Becker Center Award Criteria

Recent events

• April 24, 2025
  David A. Grenardo, Tenured Professor of Law and the Associate Director of the Holloran Center for Ethical Leadership in the Professions at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, discusses Mandatory Civility Rules. As incivility permeates society, the legal profession is not immune. Even though civility serves as one of the cornerstones of the practice of law, incivility remains a problem in the legal profession. Most responses to incivility, such as CLEs on civility, adding civility to attorney oaths, aspirational professionalism or civility codes, and calls to return to civility, fail to address the systemic incivility pervasive in the legal profession. Professor David Grenardo, the leading proponent of mandatory civility in the legal academy, will make the case for mandatory civility by discussing the benefits of civility, the consequences of incivility, and the advantages of mandatory civility. Professor Grenardo will propose several civility rules while also debunking the major myths surrounding mandatory civility, which four states have already adopted. Mandatory civility, which raises the bar for attorney conduct, will create positive systemic change in the legal profession.
• April 12, 2024
  Lucian T. Pera, partner with Adams and Reese, LLP. explains about unmistakable signals show that the American legal profession and the business of law is currently in the midst of great change. A tour d’horizon reveals two broad categories of change—those driven by economics and those driven by regulatory reforms.
• November 3, 2023
  Paula Frederick, Chair of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility and General Counsel for the State Bar of Georgia, speaks abuot how the ABA is proposing a change to Rule 5.5 of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct (governing unauthorized practice of law and multijurisdictional practice) that would allow any lawyer admitted in any United States jurisdiction to practice law and represent willing clients without regard to the geographic location of the lawyer or the client. Advocates say the rule change would better reflect the way lawyers practice in the 21st century, remove barriers to client choice, and reduce the access to justice gap. Opponents are concerned about how lawyers working across borders would be regulated.
• March 31, 2023
  Professor Michael Cassidy, Professor and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar, Boston College Law School, discussed Using Rule 5.1 to Combat Prosecutorial Misconduct. Professor Cassidy will explained if Bar Disciplinary authorities were more aggressive in using Rule 5.1 to attack institutional rather than individual failures, it would provide incentive for prosecutor's offices across the country to publish internal guidelines and train line prosecutors on how to comply with them.
• November 4, 2022
  Professor Benjamin Cooper, Senior Associate Dean, Professor of Law, and Frank Montague, Jr. Professor of Legal Studies and Professionalism at University of Mississippi School of Law, discussed the regulatory innovations in the delivery of legal services that are taking place in several jurisdictions across the country. Professor Cooper discuseds the two major types of reform that are occurring: (1) permitting non-lawyers to deliver legal services on a limited basis and (2) relaxing Rule 5.4 which prohibits non-lawyer ownership of law firms, outside investment in law firms, non-lawyer management of law firms, and sharing fees with non-lawyers.
• April 20, 2022
  Professor Margaret Tarkington of the Indiana University McKinney School of Law presented the Distinguished Lecture in Professional Responsibility titled, The 2020 Election & Constitutional Government: Examining the Rights & Responsibilities of Lawyers. The event attracted over 110 attendees to the law school and will be available online.
• Oct. 25, 2019
  The day-long Annual Miller Becker Center (MBC) Seminar took place in Columbus at the Ohio State Bar headquarters. A speakers’ dinner on Oct. 24 preceded the event. The Ohio Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Conduct and the Ohio State Bar Association co-sponsored the Seminar.
  The focus of last week’s program primarily concerned the impact of social media and technology on lawyer behavior and the use of both to investigate lawyer and judicial misconduct. The conference speakers included experts from Ohio and elsewhere and attracted approximately 150-plus lawyers and judges.
• Feb. 5, 2019
  "Representing Medical Malpractice Claimants- Some Common Ethics Issues" Speaker: Attorney Antonios P. Tsarouhas. Presented by The Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility and The Career Services Office
• Nov. 14, 2018
  "Common Ethics Considerations in Large Firm Litigation Practice" Speaker: Attorney Pete Cahoon. Presented by The Joseph G. Miller and William C. Becker Center for Professional Responsibility and The Career Services Office

Video and more

MBC Faculty Fellows

Martin H. Belsky is the Emeritus Dean of the Law School. He has organized and participated in various ethics conferences. Professor Belsky also served as the chief prosecutor in Philadelphia and Counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. He currently serves on the board of the Akron Bar Association.See his bio.

Richard Lavoie is a Dean's Club Professor focused on tax ethics and statutory interpretation. See his bio.

Jack Sahl is an Emeritus Professor and former Director of the Miller Becker Center for Professional Responsibility. He serves on the Ohio State Bar Association Professionalism Committee and as Chair of the Publications Board for the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. In 2019, he received the Eugene R. Weir Award for Ethics and Professionalism, the highest ethics recognition the Ohio State Bar Association awards.See his bio. See his bio.